The Shan Tuyet Ky Son tea brand was born and widely consumed domestically and introduced to many countries around the world, contributing to job creation and improving the lives of 40 households, owners of Shan Tuyet tea gardens in the border area.
Leave the city to make tea
In the early spring days, the decades-old Shan Tuyet tea hills of Mong ethnic households in Huoi Tu commune are covered in a deep green color. In the morning sunlight, people happily talk and laugh, quickly picking fresh tea buds to import to the export tea processing factory owned by Mr. Dao Quang Vu. While working hard, when they saw Director Vu coming to inspect the raw material area, people stopped their work to chat. The people and the young man from the city were close, like family members returning home after a long time away. Mr. Vu Giong Dia in Trung Tam village, Huoi Tu commune looked at Mr. Dao Quang Vu with affection and asked: “Recently, has our Shan Tuyet Ky Son brand tea been selling well in the market? Thanks to your business purchasing fresh tea buds at double the price, the people's lives have become less difficult. Everyone here is grateful to you, just hoping that Shan Tuyet Ky Son tea products will be trusted and supported by users to go further”.
In the story, the people in Huoi Tu shared that the locality is blessed with a cool climate all year round, suitable for many different types of crops. In particular, Shan Tuyet tea trees that grow naturally in primeval forests and are grown by people on fields all grow well, producing beautiful buds. Previously, people in Huoi Tu often picked young tea buds from ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees, processed them by hand into dry tea, which has a very special flavor, and is loved by many people in the region. Later, local people picked Shan Tuyet tea buds to supply to a local business. But after purchasing the tea buds, the owner of the establishment only processed them dry and then sold them to the market. Because the dried tea was in its raw form and had low economic value, the business owner bought fresh tea buds from the people at a low price. That made some tea growers lose interest and started cutting down the old Shan Tuyet tea trees in their hill gardens to have more land to grow other crops.
Then the young man Dao Quang Vu came to Ky Son as a chance to change the "fate" of a precious local tea variety. The story began in 2020, when Vu went on a volunteer trip to give warm clothes to poor students in the border area, and then accidentally learned that in Ky Son there was a population of ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees. "Also a trader of agricultural products, I know that in our country, Shan Tuyet tea is only found in a few localities such as Ha Giang, Son La, Yen Bai, Dien Bien, Nghe An... Depending on the climate and soil characteristics of each region, the buds and flavors of the tea are also different.
When I witnessed people cutting down ancient tea trees in Huoi Tu, I didn't think much, I just felt very sad because I knew this was a precious tree. Then at that moment, I suddenly thought of the idea of processing Shan Tuyet tea into high-quality tea to sell to the market" - Vu shared. After that, the young man contacted the local government to persuade households to stop destroying the precious tea trees, promising to return to buy fresh tea buds from the people at a much higher price. When Vu returned to the city, many people thought that it was just a promise from a visitor so that people would not destroy the ancient tea trees. However, a short time later, the Mong people saw the young man from far away Vinh City carrying his personal belongings back to Huoi Tu, asking to eat and live with the people to take care of and harvest Shan Tuyet tea.
According to the locals, in the early days of coming to Huoi Tu, after a period of staying on the tea hills, Vu returned to a small workshop, and together with his colleagues, diligently went through the stages of processing fresh tea buds into tea. After many failures, the young man succeeded, showed off his specialty tea to the locals and decided to double the purchase price of fresh tea buds for the locals. “Shan Tuyet tea in Huoi Tu has its own flavor, very few other regions have it, especially the naturally beautiful color and long-lasting sweet aftertaste. The tea tree is closely associated with the lives of the Mong ethnic group, with their industrious, hard-working nature and strong cultural identity of the community. Ky Son Shan Tuyet tea products carry strong regional cultural values. From that moment on, I believed that I and the locals would succeed in increasing the value of the tea tree, even though we would encounter many difficulties,” Mr. Vu recalled.
Bringing border specialties far and wide
With initial success in processing fresh Shan Tuyet tea buds into high-quality tea, Mr. Dao Quang Vu confidently took the next steps, determined to bring the "specialty" of the border region to a large market. He asked the local government for permission to expand the tea processing workshop right in the center of Huoi Tu commune, inviting experts to train Mong people in how to harvest and preserve tea. After more than two years of being selected by Vu for vocational training and working hard, Mr. Ly Ba Phia, born in 1990, Mong ethnic group, in Huoi Tu commune, has mastered the tea processing stages. This young Mong ethnic group is considered Vu's right-hand man to bring the Ky Son Shan Tuyet tea brand far and wide.
At the beginning of the story, Mr. Phia confided: "I am very grateful to Vu for creating job opportunities and stable income right in the land where I was born and raised. I am even more proud to contribute to bringing my local products to consumers everywhere." Over a pot of Shan Tuyet Ky Son red tea, the young Mong ethnic man shared that he graduated from Vinh University with a degree in physics education, but for a long time the local education sector had no need to recruit, so he had to put aside his dream of becoming a teacher. While everything seemed to be at a standstill, Vu chose him to be trained for a job, and trusted him to manage the stages of purchasing raw materials and processing tea products.
When the work of purchasing fresh tea buds for the villagers and processing high-quality tea gradually stabilized, Vu said goodbye to the village and the villagers to move on to a more difficult task. “Having good tea is difficult, but how to promote and sell it to the market with high economic value is even more difficult. Because only when the product is consumed well will it create jobs and stable income for the villagers. I was lucky to have worked in the field of import and export of goods, so I have many friends to introduce the Ky Son Shan Tuyet tea brand to everyone,” Mr. Vu affirmed. During the conversation, we learned that Vu graduated from the Academy of Finance and spent a long time in Da Nang working for an import and export company. In 2015, the young man opened his own company specializing in the field he was pursuing, regularly working with foreign partners. During the process of approaching international customers, Vu realized that the potential for exporting Vietnam's agricultural products to the world is very open. He decided to return to Nghe An to start a business with the desire to bring his hometown's agricultural products far and wide.
In 2019, he accepted a job as the manager of a local OCOP product introduction store in Vinh City with the desire to bring quality agricultural products of Nghe An province to the world. The young man designed the store into an open space, both to introduce and sell products, and to be a place to visit, shop and experience. The store gradually became a destination for tourists and a familiar address for consumers. Since then, Vu has been at the forefront of realizing the goal of "earning foreign currency from local specialties". The young man chose Ky Son Shan Tuyet tea as a key product for export. He brought green tea and black tea processed from Ky Son Shan Tuyet tea to exhibitions and introduced in many countries such as Laos, Thailand, China, India, Japan... After two years of operation, the young man's business has stably purchased fresh tea buds (a total of 30 tons of raw materials) from the Mong ethnic people at a price double that of before, bringing to the market 5 tons of high-quality dry tea.
