Nghe An: Spring tea prices drop, raw material areas face many difficulties

People of Trung Tin village, Yen Khe commune, Con Cuong district harvest tea. Photo: Van Truong

Con Cuong district currently has more than 400 hectares of commercial tea, concentrated in communes such as Bong Khe, Yen Khe, Chi Khe. At this time, tea is in the mass harvest season but the purchase price has dropped sharply.

Mr. Thai Van Quy's family in Trung Tin village, Yen Khe commune, districtCon Cuonghas been attached to tea trees for over 20 years and currently has over 1 hectare of tea for business; according to Mr. Quy, there has never been a year when tea prices have dropped as low as in the past. Mr. Quy said: "On the 10th day of Tet, we harvested the spring tea crop and collected 4 tons of fresh tea buds. During Tet, the price was from 2,700 - 3,000 VND/kg of fresh tea buds, but now it has dropped to 2,500 VND/kg. If sold at this price, after deducting costs such as fertilizer, labor, irrigation investment..., tea growers will suffer a loss."

Mr. Tran Thanh Binh - Chairman of Yen Khe Commune People's Committee (Con Cuong) added: Yen Khe Commune has 356 hectares of tea, the largest in Con Cuong district. The current difficulty is that tea prices are too low, in 2020, the highest tea price was 3,800 VND/kg, but at this time it is only 2,500 VND/kg. Previously, in Con Cuong, there were several mini processing factories but they all stopped operating due to difficulties, leading to a situation where many people planted freely, with unstable output.

Tea prices are low, but units still try to buy tea for people in Con Cuong to preserve the raw material area. Photo: Van Truong

In Thanh Chuong district, tea growers are also facing this reality.price dropof tea products. A tea farmer in Hanh Lam commune shared: My family grows over 1.5 hectares of tea, to have fresh tea buds, farmers have to go through a lot of hardship. From care, harvesting, not to mention the cost of fertilizers, pesticides, investment in irrigation systems, but the price is too low to cover the cost.

Some tea factories in Thanh Chuong are trying to buy fresh buds for farmers. Photo: Contributor

According to the representative of the People's Committee of Hanh Lam Commune (Thanh Chuong), the commune currently has 120 tea businesses, and the price of tea is currently very unstable, from 2,300 to 2,500 VND/kg of fresh tea buds. There are 3 tea processing factories in the area, of which 1 has closed. Due to the large output of tea buds, people have to sell to other traders in the district, even though the price is cheap, they still have to sell to take care of the next batch.

Thanh Chuong district has many factories with tea buds in stock. Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Director of Thanh Mai Tea Processing Agricultural Service Cooperative said: Our facility buys 40-50 tons of tea for people every day. During Tet, there were nearly 200 tons in stock. Currently, we have to sell them cheaply to produce new tea, but there are still over 65 tons of tea in stock.

Pre-processed tea products at some Thanh Chuong tea factories are in stock. Photo: Contributor

It is known that Thanh Chuong currently has more than 5,100 hectares of industrial tea, a locality with a large tea area compared to the whole province. The whole district has about 30 factories and tea processing facilities, currently having an inventory of about 2,000 tons of tea.

Nghe An has a total tea area of ​​over 8,000 hectares, mainly concentrated in 6 districts Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, Con Cuong, Ky Son, Quy Hop, Tuong Duong. Tea is a tree that helps eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, and is the main crop of tens of thousands of households in mountainous districts.

Tea processing in Thanh Chuong. Photo: Thanh Phuc

According to a report by the Nghe An Department of Agriculture, most of the tea materials supplied to processing factories are mainly from low-quality tea varieties. Currently, up to 70% of Nghe An's tea varieties are only suitable for processing black tea, the proportion of varieties for processing green tea and other teas accounts for only 30%. Fragmented production also greatly affects product quality.

In the long term, to stabilize output, tea growing localities need to restructure tea areas and apply scientific and technical advances. At the same time, expand the area of ​​clean tea, ensuring quality according to VietGAP standards to compete.tea exportout into the world.

In addition, it is necessary to expand export markets, diversify processed products, invest in deep processing into many other products from green tea such as tea bags, matcha powder, instant milk tea, herbal tea, etc.

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