People in Thanh Chuong are busily harvesting hundreds of tons of 'blind tea' every day.
Thu Huyen - Hoai Thu•March 3, 2025 11:59
People in Thanh Chuong district are entering the spring tea harvest season; hundreds of tons of tea buds are harvested each day, bringing in a considerable income.
Currently, Thanh Chuong district has the largest tea-growing area in Nghe An province, with approximately 5,000 hectares. March 2025 marks the beginning of the spring tea harvest for the people of Thanh Chuong. (Photo: Hoai Thu)In Thanh Thinh commune, the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Tho (on the left) is one of the households with a relatively large tea plantation area of about 4.5 hectares. Mr. Tho said that each year the tea hills yield about 4-5 harvests with an average yield of about 45-50 tons/ha. Photo: Thu HuyenMost tea-producing households in Thanh Chuong harvest tea buds using gasoline-powered cutting machines. With the help of machinery, hundreds of tons of fresh tea buds can be harvested daily. Photo: Hoai ThuSpring tea crop in Thanh Chuong is expected to yield around 45-50 tons/ha. Photo: Thu HuyenThe first harvest of spring tea is also known as the "blind" harvest. According to locals, in the tea plant's life cycle, around mid-November in the lunar calendar, most of the top part of the tea plant is pruned, a process called "tea pruning." Afterward, the tea plant will sprout new shoots, but due to the cold weather and lack of sunshine, their growth is slow, not reaching a profusion of leaves but only 2-4 leaves. This is the "blind" harvest, which must be urgently harvested and cared for to encourage faster and stronger growth. Subsequent harvests are the main harvests. Photo: Hoai ThuEach tea harvesting team usually consists of 3-5 people. They pack the harvested tea into bags and transport it to the processing facility on the same day, avoiding leaving it overnight to prevent affecting product quality. (Photo: Hoai Thu)During the 2025 spring tea harvest season in Thanh Tung commune, Mr. Bui Van Son's family's tea purchasing and processing facility processed approximately 25-30 tons of tea leaves daily, with a purchase price of 40,000 VND per kilogram of fresh tea buds. (Photo: Hoai Thu)After being harvested, the tea buds are fed into the raw tea production line. Photo: Thu HuyenThe first harvest of spring tea had low yields and was not as high in quality as the subsequent harvests, resulting in insufficient raw materials for processing plants. Hopefully, when the main harvest comes, the quality will be better and the price will be higher. Photo: Hoai ThuCurrently, there are 21 fresh tea leaf processing facilities in Thanh Chuong district, mainly exporting to countries in the Middle East. Photo: Thu HuyenPeople in Thanh Chuong harvest and process tea. Clip: Hoai Thu - Thu Huyen
