Vinatea Moc Chau Headquarters.

 Nearly 7 decades of construction and development

To better understand the history of tea trees on the Moc Chau plateau, we visited Mr. Dang Duc Vinh's house, sub-region 40, Moc Chau Farm town. Mr. Vinh was one of nearly 1,700 officers and soldiers of Regiment 280, Division 335 who volunteered to stay on this plateau to build the Military Farm, the predecessor of Moc Chau State Farm, which was later divided into today's Vinatea Moc Chau.

This year, he is nearly 90 years old, but Mr. Vinh is still lucid and clearly remembers the day he started reclaiming land and planting trees, which was also the day the Military Farm was established on April 8, 1958. Mr. Vinh said: At that time, the plateau was still very wild, mainly wild fields, wild grass, dense trees, harsh climate, especially in winter, cold, fog.

Land reclamation and expansion were also difficult because they were done by human labor with rudimentary tools. Along with land reclamation to plant corn and cassava, the Farm experimented with planting tea; tea was dug in holes and planted with seeds. After a while, the first tea buds sprouted on the highland.

After one year of establishment, the cadres and soldiers of the Farm were honored to welcome Uncle Ho to visit and encourage them. On May 8, 1959, Uncle Ho and the delegation of cadres of the Central Party and the Government visited the production teams, talked and gave instructions to the cadres and soldiers of the Farm. Here, Uncle Ho wrote in the Farm's tradition book 16 golden words: "Always try; Overcome difficulties; Move forward enthusiastically; Fulfill duties".

Vinatea Moc Chau raw tea area.

Keeping in mind Uncle Ho's teachings, the cadres and soldiers of the Farm are always united, striving to compete in labor production to build the Farm to develop more and more. Along with dairy farming, the Farm decided to choose tea development as a long-term direction. Since then, the tea area has continued to expand every year, of which the most is grown in Moc Chau Farm town and the communes: Chieng Son, Tan Lap, Phieng Luong.

Then, the Military Farm was changed to Moc Chau State Farm, after many years, it has been converted and divided into many enterprises with many different industries, including: Moc Chau Dairy Cow Breeding Joint Stock Company; Vinatea Moc Chau; Moc Chau Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company; Moc Chau Red Co Tea Joint Stock Company; Moc Chau Mulberry Silk Company...

Following generations, Vinatea Moc Chau staff and workers have been making new steps of development, affirming the brand and competitiveness of products in the market. The company has concretized the policy of building concentrated commodity production areas associated with processing and consuming products through contracts, developing cooperation and association in production and consumption of agricultural products, building raw material areas associated with consumption for associated households.

Vinatea Moc Chau brand

Currently, Vinatea Moc Chau has a company managing over 550 hectares of raw tea, mainly Shan Tuyet Moc Chau tea variety which has been granted a Certificate of Geographical Indication, annual fresh tea bud output reaches over 10,000 tons, produces 2,300 tons of finished tea, builds raw material areas associated with processing and consumption for all 1,952 tea growing households, bringing about socio-economic efficiency.

Mr. Le Chi Long, Director of Vinatea Moc Chau, informed: For many years, the company has implemented a tea production model according to the value chain. The stages from planting, caring, harvesting to collecting, processing and distributing for consumption are all controlled by contract to create products that are safe for the health of users, with traceability, aiming for sustainable, modern agricultural production, bringing high economic value.

Now, all tea-growing households have signed contracts and participated in the tea production chain with the company; 100% of the area uses land preparation machines; tea is harvested by machine; the entire growing area applies integrated pest management (IPM) measures on crops; 100% of fresh tea buds are transported by motor vehicles to the factory; the main road system to the production area and the internal roads are all hardened... With the efforts of Vinatea Moc Chau and tea-growing households, on February 15, 2022, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision to recognize the Vinatea Moc Chau High-Tech Tea Area with a total area of ​​more than 329 hectares of tea of ​​1,179 tea-growing households in Moc Chau Farm town linked to production with Vinatea Moc Chau.

Harvesting raw tea for production.

With clean raw materials, meeting the increasingly strict requirements of the market, as well as for the health of consumers, the company focuses on producing tea products according to the criteria of "clean - delicious - healthy" with many diverse products such as: Van Son Oolong Tea, Century Snow Tea and Pouchung products for export to demanding markets such as Taiwan.

Another direction that Vinatea Moc Chau is also actively implementing is combining agricultural production with eco-tourism by building Moc Chau tea village. Building kiosks to introduce products so that visitors can directly enjoy the taste of tea and experience and admire the scenery at the tea village. The tea village has become an attractive destination for many tourists when they have the opportunity to visit and experience Moc Chau plateau.

Tourists experience at Vinatea Moc Chau Tea Village.

With the goal of improving economic efficiency and brand of high-tech tea material areas; further improving product quality, the goal of bringing products to high-value markets such as Japan and the EU. In 2023, Vinatea Moc Chau was granted an investment policy decision by Son La province for the Moc Chau Tea Processing Factory Project - Vietnam Tea Corporation, with a scale of 2.5 hectares, a capacity of 125 tons of fresh tea/day, and a total registered capital of 85 billion VND. Accordingly, the company will invest in building a new factory with modern technology, fuel economy, and a closed chain, contributing to enhancing the brand value of Moc Chau Tea, improving the lives of workers and tea growers.

Nearly 7 decades of construction and development, Vinatea Moc Chau has always been steadfast in its goal of improving economic efficiency and the brand of high-tech tea material areas, improving product quality, and targeting high-value markets. At the same time, developing eco-tourism, associated with enjoying the taste of tea and experiencing and sightseeing on the tea hills, increasing the value of Moc Chau tea trees.

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