Tea producers and processors in the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen are focusing on the domestic market over foreign options as a stable means of development, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The province currently sells an average of 31,500 tonnes of tea to the domestic market every year, or 80 percent of its total yearly output of over 39,000 tonnes. Only 20 percent of Thai Nguyen tea is sold abroad, mostly in Pakistan , Russia , China , Japan and the Republic of Korea , with lower prices than those in the domestic market. Phan Huy Binh, Chairman of the Board of Members of Trung Nguyen company, said that his firm exports about 1 million USD worth of tea per year priced between 1.7-2.3 USD per kilogramme, much lower than domestic price of at least 200,000 VND (9 USD) per kilogram. Meanwhile, Do Thi Duc Ly, Director of Tan Cuong-Hoa Binh company – another leading tea enterprise in Thai Nguyen, said that in the past, her company exported about 2,500 tonnes of processed tea each year but yielded low profit. The firm has recently focused on promoting trademarks and developing in the domestic market through major supermarkets and distributors, helping it gain a stable position in the market, she said. In the past nine months, the company earned 6.2 billion VND (278,000 USD), up 20 percent over the same period last year, noted Ly, adding that the firm has also invested in upgrading its equipment and machines to raise its capacity to process 18 tonnes of fresh buds each day. According to the Thai Nguyen Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, a number of famous local enterprises, cooperatives and tea areas have also gained market shares in the domestic market with increasing sales volumes.-VNA