The People's Committee of Lam Dong Province is calling for help from the Vietnam Tea Association as the tea sector is facing great difficulties in export sales.
Farmers harvesting tea in Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province
In an urgent letter sent to the association, the People's Committee of Lam Dong Province said that tea exports had been hit by negative rumours and technical barriers applied by Taiwan to protect its own tea sector.
Nguyen Van Son, vice director of the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the difficult situation has come since last April when authorities in Taiwan, Vietnam's biggest tea importer, warned that seven batches of black tea imported from Vietnam were contaminated with the highly toxic compound dioxin, and 22 other batches exceeded the allowed pesticide residue limit.
"Although this information was later been proved wrong by investigators from both countries, local tea exports continue to face new challenges when Taiwan recently raised the Oolong tea compositional standard to fipronil 0.003 ppm (it is just 0.005ppm in some European market)," Son said. "I think this move, along with the dioxin rumours were to cripple competition, which has been going on between Taiwanese tea companies operating in Vietnam and those in their country."
Hundreds of tea exporters in Lam Dong Province, including about 30 Taiwanese firms, along with thousands of local farmers have been facing great difficulties due to slow sales.
Lam Dong People's Commitee reported that there was now more than 2,000 tonnes of unsold tea in the province.
The committee proposed the association seek more markets to save the local tea sector.
Lam Dong is the largest tea producing province, with more than 22,000 hectares, yielding 230 tonnes of tea last year.
The Central Highlands province is home to around 6,000 hectares of high-quality tea plantations, concentrated mainly in Bao Loc, Di Linh and Da Lat. That tea is exported to the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Europe.