A tea farm in Tân Sơn District, Phú Thọ. The northern province will pour VNĐ118 billion into developing a tea brand. — Photo phutho.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI — Phú Thọ will pour VNĐ118 billion (US$5 million) in implementing policies to develop tea plantations and build a tea brand for the northern province, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Committee Nguyễn Thanh Hải said.

Despite being among provinces with the largest tea plantation area, Phú Thọ’s tea products were not very well-known in the market.

Hải said that the province would reorganise tea processing plants to ensure the association with tea plantation areas together with improving processing technology to improve the product quality.

The effort of trade promotion to expand markets and build a brand for Phú Thọ tea would also be enhanced, Hải said.

Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Trần Tú Anh said that to develop a sustainable tea industry, it was critical to build a value chain from tea growers to processing plants and distributors to control product quality.

The provincial Department of Science and Technology was building a project for developing a certified brand for Phú Thọ tea products, which aimed to control the products’ origin and quality as well as increasing added value of tea products. The project was expected to be completed this year.

Phú Thọ has more than 16,000 hectares of tea with an estimated output of 184,000 tonnes, more than 30,000 tonnes higher than 2014.

Phú Thọ ranked fourth by tea plantation area and third by output in the country.

Tea was mainly grown in Thanh Ba, Hạ Hòa, Đoan Hùng, Thanh Sơn, Tân Sơn and Yên Lập districts.

Many tea products of Phú Thọ were exported to India, China, Germany, the UK, Pakistan, the US, the Netherlands and Japan. — VNS