The annual Spring Tea Festival was opened in Thai Nguyen City, the northern Thai Nguyen Province, on the 12th day of the first lunar month (February 8), drawing crowds of domestic and international visitors.
The event comprises numerous activities, including parading old tea trees and tea drying contests.
Tea is the strategic product of Thai Nguyen. Over the past 20 years, tea trees have provided high economic value and jobs for tens of thousands of labourers. Thai Nguyen tea in general and Tan Cuong tea in particular have been household names in Viet Nam since old time.
Currently, the province has nearly 1,500 hectares of tea growing area, producing 19,000 tonnes of fresh tea buds per year, generating 180 million VND per hectare per year.
Over the past five years, the locality has made efforts to expand market for its tea products, attract foreign investment in tea farming and processing, while encouraging local farmers to produce safe tea and improve tea quality.
Nine cooperatives in Phuc Xuan, Phuc Triu, Tan Cuong communes, Thai Nguyen City have been granted certificates for its safe tea products, with the involvement of nearly 300 households farming on a combined area of 110 hectares.
In order to promote the Tan Cuong trademark of local tea, the Thai Nguyen provincial People’s Committee has designated the Tan Cuong tea growing area as tourism site, which spreads across six communes of Tan Cuong, Phuc Triu, Phuc Xuan, Thinh Duc, Quyet Thang and Phuc Ha.
According to Vice Chairman of the Thai Nguyen City People’s Committee Quan Chi Cong, the city will continue to implement a project to promote the Tan Cuong trademark, with the annual Spring Tea Festival being part of the effort.