6,500 households to join in international standard tea production in 2017

The Vietnam Tea Association aims to reach the target that by the end of this year, 15 factories and 6,500 households are expected to work together and produce 25,000 tonnes of tea, including 15,000 tonnes of Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified tea.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in collaboration with the Vietnam Tea Association held a ceremony to launch the second phase of the project “Promoting tea farmers to join the sustainable and quality tea supply chain” in Hanoi on February 28.

The project, jointly implemented by the sustainable trade initiative (IDH) organisation of the Netherlands, the Unilever group and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), aims to train and provide technical assistance for farmers to produce tea certified by the Rainforest Alliance (RA).

According to the report of the Vietnam Tea Association, nearly 30 firms and 20,000 farmers will participate in producing 25,000 tonnes of tea of international standards in a project to promote the private-public partnership (PPP) model in tea production.

The PPP model has helped improve tea quality and productivity while saving production costs and labour. Their tea products meet food safety requirements of the EU and Japan, according to tea production factories.

According to a representation of Unilever Vietnam, after three years of implementing the PPP model, the group raised its import volume of Vietnam’s tea from 5,000 tonnes to 11,000 tonnes.

The model is expected to continue improving Vietnam’s tea quality and the group can import up to 20,000 tonnes of tea from Vietnam.

Under the second phase of the project, 15 factories and 6,500 households are expected to work together and produce 25,000 tonnes of tea, including 15,000 tonnes of RA certified tea, which are shipped overseas and supply for Unilever.

In addition, the Vietnam Tea Association is implementing an IDH-funded project on the quality and sustainability of the tea industry. The project aims to enhance Vietnam’s tea quality to meet international standards.

The statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that in February, the tea export volume was estimated at 7,000 tonnes worth 10 million USD, bringing the volume of tea export in the first two months of this year to 16,000 tonnes valued at 23 million USD.

Translated by Thu Minh

Source: Thien Tu-Kinhtedothi.vn