Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem ratified a feasibility project for the “tea auction floor” for the first time, using non-refundable aid granted by the French Development Agency (AFD).
According to the Vietnamese Tea Association, the floor would also allow domestic tea companies to promote their products.
It hopes tea companies around the world will set up representative offices in Vietnam when the floor comes into operation.
Tea trees now cover 125,000 hectares in 33 cities and provinces in Vietnam. The country’s total tea output averages 577,000 tons a year, meeting only 50% of total capacity of local processing factories.
The country hit a record tea export volume last year, 105,116 tons. In the first quarter 2007, Vietnam shipped 22,000 tons of tea to more than 100 countries worldwide; some 68 of them are in WTO