“You should go to Ban Lien, listen to the people share and feel more clearly about the land of our heavenly products.  Perhaps you will be surprised, because there is no bad tea hill like in Ban Lien ”- Mr. Giang jokingly told us before going to the“ paradise ”of Shan Tuyet Bac Ha tea.

 Nearly 30 km from the center of Bac Ha district, Ban Lien commune is blessed with a cool climate and soil suitable for developing tea plants.  Even the oldest people in Ban Lien don't know when Shan Tuyet tea trees have been in this land.  Many tea roots are hundreds of years old, growing on the steep slopes, every year people come to collect them, bring them to drink fresh, dried stars to market or as gifts for guests.

People in Ban Lien commune collect tea.

Different from our imagination of the nearly 500-hectare area of ​​tea, the tea fields in Ban Lien are planted scatteredly into small pieces, sparse, thick areas and not in rows and rows like Thanh Binh tea area (  Muong Khuong) or Phu Nhuan (Bao Thang).  Explaining about this, Mr. Lam A Tuong, village of Doi 2, Ban Lien commune said: Tea tree has been grown for a long time in Ban Lien, there are times when people do not care, so let the weed grow overgrown, many  dead tree.  After additional planting, should have tall trees and low trees.  Moreover, due to the sloping terrain and limited cultivation techniques, people do not pay attention to planting in line.  Therefore, tea trees here grow naturally, do not take care, improve, so low yields.

Previously, the consumption of tea products faced many difficulties, many households in Ban Lien almost deserted tea fields for weed invasion.  Determining that tea is a commodity-valued tree with prospect of raising incomes for people, in 2004, Bac Ha district established Ban Lien Tea Cooperative to take out all tea products for people.  locality.  When the cooperative was established, people changed their awareness and interest in developing tea trees.  From more than 100 original members, the commune now has more than 300 households associated with planting tea and selling fresh bud tea to the Ban Lien Tea Cooperative.

It is not difficult for us to find the processing workshop of the Ban Lien Tea Cooperative because of the unique aroma emanating from the freshly baked tea batches.  The whole factory has about a dozen workers operating the processing line, one for each job, from purchasing fresh tea, crating, sieving, drying ... to sorting the finished tea.  After taking us to a tour of the factory, Mr. Pham Quang Than, Director of the Ban Lien Tea Cooperative, brewed tea to invite guests to drink.  While waiting for the tea to soak up, he took out a cup of papers certified by international organizations for Ban Lien tea products, showing, “EC Regulation No.834 /  2007);  Canadian and American standards (Canada Organic Regime Can / CGSB 23,310 and Can / CGSB 32,311) certified by IACE-Italy and ATC-Thailand;  Fairtrade Certificate - Ban Lien Organic Tea Cooperative ("Fair Trade Organic Tea") are the "visas" that bring Ban Lien tea products to the European market.  To get the "visa" is the effort of the government, people, businesses and cooperatives.  We must fully comply with 25 strict standards set by international organizations.  Basically, Ban Lien tea products are grown naturally, without using fertilizers and plant protection drugs.  The cooperative granted certificates to 310 households participating in tea production, each tea plantation household had its code and record book and we randomly checked every year, taking soil samples of any tea hill for making tea.  If the violating households violate, they will deprive the certificate and not buy fresh bud tea ”.

Classification of tea at Ban Lien Tea Cooperative.

Thanks to a stable export market, each year the Ban Lien Tea Cooperative buys about 400 tons of fresh bud tea, then processes it into products: black tea, dried tea, white tea, tea cake ...  export about 100 tons of dry to 10 countries in Europe, America ... "As far as I know, only instant tea products of Ban Lien can be exported to Europe for use in food and cosmetics industry" -  Mr. Than added.

 Sharing the benefits of growing organic tea for export, Mr. Giang Seo De, Chairman of Ban Lien Commune People's Committee, said: Thanks to tea cultivation, many households in the commune have high incomes, from several tens of millions dong to hundreds of millions every year.  Particularly such as Mr. Vang A Du's household, village no.4, each year collects about 16 tons of fresh bud tea, earning more than 250 million VND.  It is estimated that people in the commune collect about VND 16 billion from selling fresh bud tea.

 Taking us to the field where tea is being harvested, Ms. Lam Thi Oai, from village no.3, said: Because of the natural farming, the tea has few buds, but with an average selling price of about 14,000 VND/kg, a year my family  earned nearly 20 million.  Tea trees combine with the soil and the weather, so naturally develop, only 1-2 times a year, each month a harvest is finished.  I just want more land to grow tea, to increase my family's income.

When we asked the question: Why do not buds have less fertilizer?  Ms. Oai explained: This tea is not fertilized, if using fertilizer, the cooperative will collect the certificate and no longer buy bud tea.

 Like Oai's family, Lam A Tuong's family or Vang Thi Hien's family (village no.2) and many other households in Ban Lien are expected to develop more tea areas.

 According to Mr. Pham Quang Than: The cooperative's processing line has the maximum capacity of 8 tons of fresh bud tea / day.  However, the highest ever raw tea only reached about 5 tons.  The cooperative wants people to continue improving tea gardens, expanding the area, increasing productivity to get more raw materials, and increasing income for people.  The cooperative pledges to cover all tea production to meet the standards.

 About Ban Lien these days, people are passionately talking about Shan Tuyet tea tree, about producing organic tea for export.  Many families have earned additional income from the strong local crop.  The people of Ban Lien are proud of the products made by themselves that reach the world market.