VietNamNet Bridge – Farmers are rushing to pick tea leaves to sell to Chinese businessmen which will be used to process yellow tea, while local tea processors are crying about the material shortage for domestic processing.
Tran Van Gia, Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Tea Association, has voiced his deep concern about the material tea shortage. At this moment, Chinese businessmen are trying to collect as much tea as possible in Vietnam to process yellow tea which will be used during the 2008 Olympics in China.
Hunting for materials
In the last two months, material tea markets in the north, especially in border and midland provinces, saw many Chinese businessmen come to collect materials for processing yellow tea, which is favoured much in the market with more than one billion consumers.
The Chinese businessmen collect not only dried tea, but fresh tender tea leaves and rudimentary processing tools as well.
The massive collection has led to abnormal price increases. In Lao Cai province, for example, one kilogramme of tea is selling at VND25,000 instead of VND15,000. At the end of April and in early May, the yellow tea processed by Shan Tuyet Suoi Giang tea was sold at VND90,000/kg at the Muong Khuong border gate, while Shan Tuyet Bac Ha tea was sold for VND75,000/kg at the Phong Tho border gate in Lai Chau province.
In midland provinces like Phu Tho and Tuyen Quang, the fresh material price rose to VND5,000/kg, or double the normal price.
The materials provided by northern provinces seems to be not enough for Chinese businessmen, who subsequently have gone to Lam Dong province in the south to collect materials.
According to Tran Van Gia, Hong Kong previously imported 1,500-1,700 tonnes of Vietnam’s Shan Tuyet tea every year to make yellow tea. However, Vietnamese dealers, who did not have good knowledge about yellow tea, bought the tea grown in midland provinces and put it out to dry in the sun to make it similar to yellow tea. Meanwhile, farmers, who could sell tea for good prices to Vietnamese dealers, picked tea leaves earlier which caused the yield to go down by 30%.
Yellow tea making processors miserable
Mr Gia said that the “yellow tea fever” had led to the overexploitation of the tea plant, which makes the quality of tea leaves worse due to the bad picking techniques.
He said that now Chinese businessmen refused to buy counterfeit yellow tea; therefore, 5-7,000 tonnes of tea have been left unsold.
Meanwhile, tea processing plants are seriously lacking materials to run. Many tea processors have been incurring debts as they have breaking contracts due to the material shortage, making many workers jobless.
The prestige of Vietnam-made tea has been seriously affected as foreign enterprises have turned their backs on Vietnam’s tea. A foreign company has sued the Song Lo and Nghe An Tea Companies for breach of contract.
VTA has warned that if the situation cannot be improved and the ‘yellow tea bleeding’ continues, more plants will have to shut down.
Ha Yen | 
No comments:
Post a Comment