Hanoi (VNA)- Tea exports in the past 11 months reached 118,000 tonnes, bringing home 197million USD, increasing 7.1 percent in volume and 4.3 percent in value comparedto the same period last year.

Of these, the exportvolume of Vietnamese tea in November is estimated at 12,000 tonnes with aturnover of 21 million USD, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD).

However, the tea pricefor exports in the first ten months decreased nearly 14 percent compared to thesame period last year to 1,656 USD per tonne on average.

According to the VietnamTea Association (Vitas), export value for the whole year is expected at 235million USD, with 46 percent from green tea and 53 percent from black tea.

Top importers of Vietnamesetea include Afghanistan, Indonesia, Russia, Pakistan, Taiwan, the US, mainlandChina, the UK and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Pakistan was the topconsumption market of Vietnamese tea in the first ten months of the year,accounting for 34 percent of market share. Export volume to the marketincreased 1.8 percent but declined 8.7 percent in value compared to the sameperiod last year.

Markets whose teaimports increased include China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The association alsopredicted that tea export volume would increase by 10 percent next year.However, according to Vitas, to meet the expectation, cooperation betweencentral and local relevant agencies is required, such as planning teaplantation land and processing units with suitable capacity.

The association alsosuggested tight control for safe tea production, as well as supporting policiesfor enterprises and farmers in production, investment and material purchase.

The Hai Quan (Customs)newspaper quoted Nguyen Thi Anh Hong, Vitas Vice President, as saying thatASEAN is becoming a more important market for the Vietnamese tea sector.

In the last five years,Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have always been in the top 10 importersof Vietnamese tea. However, Indonesia imports lower grade tea compared to thetwo other countries, but with a larger volume.

Besides the threecountries, Thailand is emerging as an important importer of Vietnamese tea, shesaid.

Among tea importers,Pakistan remains a stable import market. Meanwhile, export to Taiwan’s marketfaced a lot of difficulties due to the exceptionally strict conditions onresidues in plant protection products. However, the problem was solved afterthe MARD’s National Agro-Forestry Fisheries Quality Assurance worked with theTaiwan side. Taiwan raised the permitted residue levels,therefore, tea exports, especially, jasmine tea, to the market have improved,she added.-VNA