Dai Tu district in the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen on January 6 opened its second tea festival in order to promote the local specialty.

Apart from the tea making art, visitors to the three-day festival will have a chance to enjoy Then singing – a traditional oratorio of the Tay ethnic people and witness the “le cap sac” (age-coming) ceremony of the Dao ethnic group.

Within the framework of the event, there will be a fair introducing tea products and technologies used in tea processing by businesses, cooperatives, trade villages and households.

Blessed with favourable soil and climate, Dai Tu has the largest area of tea trees in Thai Nguyen with over 6,200 hectares which yield more than 57,000 tonnes of tender tea leaves each year, making up one third of the province’s total tea output.

With popular brand names such as La Bang, Khuon Ga, Phu Lac, Tan Linh and Quan Chu, Dai Tu has made progress in poverty reduction and seen farmers’ incomes increase thanks to tea trees.

Last November, Thai Nguyen hosted the second International Tea Festival, a biennial event co-organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Thai Nguyen provincial People’s Committee. It also aimed to publicise tea products, farms and the drinking culture of Thai Nguyen and Vietnam in general.

Thai Nguyen tea products are very popular in Vietnam and also exported to foreign markets. The province’s tea export value accounts for one third of the country’s total exports.-VNA