The delegation's presentation on Vietnamese tea products and drinking culture on June 8 attracted a number of Dutch tea making giants, including Elink Schuurman Thee BV, Steinweg BV and Herman Kuijper BV. Vietnamese tea was the hot topic for Dutch businesses as they discussed possibilities to import more Vietnamese tea products into the country as well as boost exports to other markets via Rotterdam, the world’s largest seaport.
However, not all the talks left a good taste in the mouth as the limitations of the Vietnamese tea industry were also pointed out. These related to credibility in implementing export contracts, product diversity and control of chemical residue in line with EU regulations.
On the Vietnamese mission were executives from Future Tea, the Northern Tea and Coffee Company and the Central Highlands Tea Company under the Viet Nam Tea Association.
This market-survey visit was made in response to the Government’s recent call on tea enterprises to expand export markets, intensify trade promotion, raise quality and promote trademarks.
Tea is an important export for the country. This year alone 37,000 tonnes of tea worth 34 million USD have been shipped abroad. This is a year-on-year increase of 10.1 percent and 6.1 percent respectively, according to the General Statistics Office.
By 2010, the country plans to export 140,000 tonnes of tea worth 190 million USD.
The industry’s major earners are black, green and jasmine tea which are mainly shipped to Pakistan , mainland China and Taiwan , Russia , India , Indonesia , Iraq , Germany , Poland and the United States .
Last year saw Vietnam export 105,000 tonnes of tea, including around 65,300 tonnes of black tea, over 27,000 tonnes of green tea and nearly 3,800 tonnes of jasmine tea, totalling 111 million USD.