To date, Vietnamese tea is mainly exported to Taiwan, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Russia. However, market expansion in recent years has ground to a halt. India - one of Vietnam’s largest tea markets - recently froze tea imports due to a Government decision to minimise tea imports. In addition, some other markets, including Ireland, Belgium, Cambodia, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, France and Thailand, stopped importing tea from Vietnam. With the narrowing of its export market, the Vietnamese tea sector is facing a lot of difficulties.

The loss of export markets is attributed to a lack of marketing strategies from export enterprises, as they only focus on quantity instead of quality. After one or two deals with Vietnamese tea export companies, foreign companies decide to buy tea from other countries, which offer better quality and competitive prices.

Every year, Vietnam exports approximately 100,000 tonnes of tea, ranking it seventh in the world market. However, export value is low due to low process quality, outdated processing equipment and a lack of trademarks in foreign markets.

The Vietnamese tea trademark, featuring a tea leaf and a green conical hat, was launched by the Vietnam Tea Association one year ago. But still, Vietnamese tea export enterprises have not yet fully exploited the trademark to promote export activities.

In the domestic market, there remains an imbalance between material supply and a boom in the numer of tea processing factories. Recent data showed that the total processing productivity of tea processing factories is double that of the total tea material supply. In some localities, raw tea only meets 30 percent of demand from factories.

To cope with the situation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has proposed some measures for the development of the tea sector in the 2006-2010 period. Accordingly, the sector will build a detailed plan for development, increase international co-operation, accelerate trade promotion activities and expand consumption markets. The sector will also encourages tea factories to pour investment into renewing production lines and applying new technology to provide diverse and high-quality tea products.

The Tea Corporation will issue guidelines to localities to develop specialised tea growing areas and create a stable supply of material for tea processing factories. The corporation will also help tea companies facilitate product promotion campaigns and encourage them to register and protect their trademark.

With such prompt measures, the tea sector is expected to penetrate more markets and boost tea exports.