Planned tea auction floor aims to lift standards

Speaking at the mid-term report meeting on the project, held by Vitas on Friday in Ha Noi, Gia said that they would experiment in five provinces before extending to others.

"Building the auction floor is indispensable for Viet Nam to put forward standards for its tea industry," he said.

He added that the floor would serve as a marketplace for tea sellers and buyers to meet and trade regularly.

He also said that the floor would allow Vietnamese tea companies to promote their products and image to both domestic and foreign markets.

On the floor, buyers and sellers will be able to publish prices, helping them to keep the project transparent.

It would therefore also contribute to eliminating poor made-in-Viet Nam tea products, which affected the whole tea industry’s prestige.

It was hoped that big tea companies across the world would set up representative offices in the country once the floor came into operation. The floor would help Viet Nam become one of world’s great tea centres.

Gia added that Vietnamese teas were being sold at prices lower than their real value due to unhealthy competition in markets.

The country now had over 3,150 tea products, including poor-quality ones, which gave customers problems when trying to find high-quality and prestigious suppliers.

Iain Lang, head of the project’s study group, said that a clear marketing strategy was necessary for Viet Nam to popularise the country’s tea industry.

"Vietnamese tea companies have suffered losses because their prices are lower than those of other countries, though the quality is roughly the same," he said.

Attendants at the meeting all agreed that establishing the floor was vital for the country’s tea industry. However, the floor should be established step by step to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

Sharing the idea, A Chau Tea Company director Phan Thai expected that the floor would help stabilise tea prices and quality. However, he said that it was not yet time for this business to go public.

Head of the Agro-forestry and Aquatic Processing, Trading and Salt Department Le Xuan said that rearrangement in production should be implemented to increase tea product value. A good production line would help the floor operate more effectively.

According to a target set by the Government, the country’s tea output would reach 250,000 tonnes by 2020. Seventy to 75 per cent of the total output would then be for export.

The group said that domestic consumption would reduce by about 20 per cent. Green tea output would occupy one half of the total to meet domestic and overseas markets.

Considerable attention was also given to proposals for building standards, policies, infrastructure, laboratories and market information.

Statistics by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that the country now has 131,500ha for tea cultivation in 35 provinces. Average annual productivity has reached 6.5 tonnes per hectare of tender tea leaves, providing materials for around 700 tea businesses.

Viet Nam exports tea products to 110 countries and territories across the world. The CheViet brand name has a registered trademark in 70 countries and regions. The country now ranks fifth in the world in terms of output and exports.