Festival honours Vietnamese tea

A festival featuring Tan Cuong tea, a speciality of the northern province of Thai Nguyen opened in Thai Nguyen city on March 1.
The event, themed ‘Flavours of Spring Tea’ was one of the annual activities to honour the tea tree and traditional tea growing industry in Tan Cuong, which produces one of the most popular tea brands in the country.
It is also a meeting place for growers, producers and drinkers of Tan Cuong tea in particular and Thai Nguyen tea in general.
The highlight of the event was a competition of tea processing in the traditional way with eight teams from Tan Cuong commune.
Other activities are being held during the festival, including a tea offering ritual, art performances by local people and folk games.
2015 marks the 8th year Tan Cuong tea has been granted the geographical indication (GI) by the Department of Intellectual Property under the Ministry of Science and Technology. It is also on the list of products protected with the GI nationwide.
With a total tea growing area of 17,000 hectares and an average annual production of 120,000 tones, Thai Nguyen province now has the second largest area of tea plantations in the country.
The locality has more than 66,000 tea growing and producing households and over 30 enterprises manufacturing, processing and exporting tea, making tea a key industry in the province..