Tea is a valuable tree, which is available for harvest regularly, contributing to ensuring life for people in Bao Thang district (Lao Cai province).
Mr. Do Thanh Long in Phu An 1 village, Phu Nhuan commune (Bao Thang district, Lao Cai) has more than 3 ha of Lai 2 tea (LDH2), which is one of the few households with the largest tea area in the village. Three years ago, he took over the entire tea area of some other households. After that, he boldly applied scientific and technical advances in the cultivation and care of tea processing. Up to now, his family’s tea products are of high quality. This year, his family can collect about 70 tons of tea, with a selling price of 6,000 VND/kg of fresh tea, bringing about 420 million VND. After deducting the cost of labor, fertilizer, etc, his family saved 300 million VND.
Tea changes the face of the countryside and life in Phu Nhuan.
Mr. Tran Quang Chuong, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Phu Nhuan Commune, said that the commune currently has 177 ha of tea, mainly for business, including Lai 1, Lai 2, and Bat Tien varieties. They are cared for under strict regulations on safe tea production. For many years, tea has become the main crop that helps many households in the commune to overcome poverty, improve income, and stabilize life.
The productivity of tea in the commnue is estimated at 4-5 tons/ha. Each year, the whole commune reaches an output of about 900 tons of fresh tea, worth over 05 billion VND. tea has played a big role in creating jobs, reducing poverty, helping to restructure the agricultural economy, and forming a sustainable raw materials area.
Mr. Cu Seo Muoi at Ai Nam village, Phong Hai town, Bao Thang district, was the first Mong person here to plant tea. Now, his family has about 1.3 ha of Bat Tien tea, bringing a monthly output of about 600 kg. With the current selling price of about 10,000 VND/kg, his family can earn 6 million VND by selling fresh tea per month.
Mr. Cu Seo Muoi said that his family has an annual income from tea of about 36 millon VND. tea does not require too much investment. He just needs to weed grass twice a year and fertilize it. Ai Nam village is 1,000m higher than sea level, so tea here is good and has a higher selling price than other places.
Mr. Do Hong Quan, Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Bap Thang district, said that in the past time, the district continued to pay attention to implementing an intensive program to develop high-quality tea areas associated with processing and building the Bao Thang tea brand.
Tea brings a better life to people in the mountain region of Bao Thang district (Lao Cai).
Along with improving the tea quality, the district will implement new planting and replace old tea areas with advanced varieties with higher productivity, quality, and efficiency. Thereby, the district can form concentrated materials areas in localities, promoting production links with enterprises and processing establishments in the area, and supporting processing units to build material areas. Therefore, both tea growes and production units have stable output with guaranteed tea quality.
The specialized agency of Bao Thang district will guide tea growers to apply technical advances and intensive investment in increasing the productivity and production of fresh tea. In particular, the agency will focus on state management, improving production quality and efficiency to meet the standards of food hygiene and safety, and improving income for people.
Bao Thang district currently has 509 ha of tea, mainly including Bat Tien, Phuc Van Tien, O Long, etc. Production off fresh tea in the first half of 2023 reached about 1,800 tons. The consumption market is in the province and Middle Eastern countries. The price of high-quality fresh tea applied to Ai Nam village area (Phong Hai town) is 12,000 VND/kg for type 1; 10,000 VND/kg for type 2; and 5,500-6,500 VND/kg for other areas./.