Efficiency from organic tea production model

Grasping the trend of consuming green and clean products customers, as well as ensuring public health and balancing the ecological environment, in 2020, Thuy Thuat Tea Cooperative, Phuc Triu commune (Thai Nguyen city) has switched from making VietGAP tea to growing organic tea, with an area of 5 hectares.

Some units, cooperatives in the province visited Thuy Thuat Tea Cooperative.

Mr. Ngo Viet Thuat, Director of Thuy Thuat Tea Cooperative, said: The Cooperative was established in June 2017, with 15 members, specializing in tea production according to VietGAP standards, with an area of 7 hectares. By 2020, with the support of the Thai Nguyen Agricultural Extension Center, 5/7 hectares of the Cooperative's tea production area will have the entire care process changed from fertilization and spraying, ensuring 100 percent without inorganic fertilizers and plant protection drugs. There are no coloring, flavoring, or flavoring agents during processing.

Taking us to visit the tea hill behind the house, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a member of the Cooperative, introduced: The entire organically cultivated tea area is divided into plots for easy management, monitoring, and ensuring each stage must be carefully and meticulously cared for. Regarding fertilization, each year, the tea hill will be dug into a trench to fertilize with composted manure twice, around January and early May. Then, the tea roots will be fertilized with organic fertilizer. After 10-15 days, farmers continue to fertilize with a mixture of crushed soybeans mixed with sugar or molasses, cornstarch mixed with probiotics and incubated for 10 days.

In addition, tea plants can be fertilized with fish protein or banana compost instead. When detecting tea plants with pests, use biological-repellant products and herbs. Cooperative members also use the bark of acacia and got trees to bury into tea roots to prevent weeds from growing to retain moisture and create fertility for the soil.

According to Ms. Thuy, when first applying organic farming, members of the Cooperative had to struggle a lot with their thoughts. Because making organic tea requires much effort, tea productivity decreased significantly within the first year. Specifically, the previous time, in 360m2 of tea area, the farmer collected an average of about 22kg of dry tea, but now it only yields 12-15kg. At that time, many people were not interested in organic tea, and wholesale customers decreased...
Thanks to the enthusiastic support of agricultural extension officers as well as the perseverance of farmers, up to now, tea trees have grown and developed stably, and the quality and price of tea have increased. The Cooperative's tea products are currently available on many e-commerce exchanges. Now, the cooperative consumes over 5 tons of dried tea buds/year, with prices ranging from 250,000 VND to 3 million VND per kg, depending on the product. According to calculations, 1 hectare of organic tea earns over 475 million VND per year, 120 million VND higher than conventional production.

According to the assessment of cooperative members, when producing organic tea, the tea field ecosystem has been significantly improved, and the land has become more fertile. In addition, people also feel more secure when producing without worrying about affecting their health. The air in the area is no longer polluted.

With the efforts of the Board of Directors and members, up to now, Thuy Thuat Tea Cooperative has tea products certified with 3-star and 4-star OCOP standards. The Cooperative's tea area is certified with the growing area code... In particular, at the end of 2022, the Cooperative's tea products will be approved by specialized units as organic products by agricultural product standard requirements. The Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association awarded the Cooperative a Certificate of Merit for outstanding achievements in developing organic agricultural products in 2023.