HANOI – Unilever Vietnam on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to cooperate in a project of producing tea meeting Rainforest Alliance standards.
The project aims to help Vietnam increase the export volume of black tea through supporting tea growers and producers in raising the competitiveness of tea material. Specifically, Unilever in 2015 will buy 25,000-30,000 tons of high-quality black tea certified by the Rainforest Alliance organization.
The agreement is part of Unilever’s sustainable development project released in late 2010. The use of 100% crude agro product materials from the sustainable material sources is one of the project’s three aims in 2020.
Besides, the agreement can make 50,000-70,000 households get involved in the tea supply chain, and then tea growers can improve their earnings while pursuing clean and sustainable production, said Nguyen Tri Ngoc, head of the Cultivation Department under the agriculture ministry.
Currently, Vietnam’s tea cultivation areas are mainly in the northern mountainous and north-central regions. There are around 700 tea plants with nearly six million people earning their livings from growing and producing tea.
Therefore, according to the ministry, the tea industry is playing an important role in combating poverty in mountainous and remote areas. The cooperation also helps accelerate the process of producing tea under global standards through the transfer of modern production technologies.
