How Ba Che golden camellia tea thrives from disappearance

Survive the risk of extinction

In the Ba Che mountain region, the Dap Thanh commune is known as the golden camellia tea hub. Mr. Ninh Van Trang, director of Dap Thanh Forest Products Trading Joint Stock Company, explained that golden camellia tea grows freely in the forest. Previously, when merchants came to purchase the plant, people would go to the forest to dig out the golden camellia tea roots and sell them for between VND 1.5 and 2 million per tree. As a result, the number of natural golden camellia tea rapidly decreased and was in danger of disappearance.

Mr. Trang, seeing the numerous advantages of the golden camellia tea tree, decided to plant them rather than sell them and became one of the pioneers in planting, recovering, and protecting these plants.

Mr. Trang began growing valuable tea plants on his 3,000m2 plot of land at the beginning of 2009, with capital accumulated by him and his wife over a period of more than 10 years, coupled with loans.

Mr. Trang purchased thousands of golden camellia tea trees from villagers who pulled the plants from the forest. Since then, the San Chi ethnic people have made the forest their home and the tree stump their place to eat and relax. Day by day, he and his relatives nurture this plant with the expectation that it would grow rapidly, remain healthy, and bloom as planned.

The path to owning a golden plant

Passionately, he began the cultivation, but the plants continually perished due to inadequate soil and growing space.

He had to research himself day and night in order to save the plants, as he could not seek assistance from anyone. He began providing the tree with moisture and chill by utilizing several pumpers to pump a large volume of water on a daily basis.

In fact, these tea plants have become greener and their leaves have expanded more rapidly. Then, in 2013, after four years of effort, tens of thousands of golden camellia tea trees planted by Mr. Trang and his wife bore buds. That day, his family was as joyful as if they had discovered treasure.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Bay, Mr. Trang's wife, reminisced that the pair could not hide their feelings on the day the tea trees produced buds and blossomed, as they watched the yellow petals grow larger and larger. Mrs. Bay appeared to have tears rolling down her cheeks as she stated, "Mr. Trang smiled at me as he held the flower in his hand and said he can now sleep soundly."

With 3,000m2 and more than 1,000 tea bushes in the first year, just 15kg of blossoms were collected despite the initial success. Productivity is the issue to be resolved. He experimented with ways to care for this plant more efficiently. Mr. Trang made the decision to travel alone to China in search of appropriate planting technologies.

The number of golden camellias gathered in 2015 was greater than in 2014, as many as 75kg were taken; in 2015, more than 1 quintal, excluding tea leaves, were harvested. Mr. Trang's firm generated around 700 kg of dried flowers with an expected worth of tens of billions of dong in 2021. Overcoming several obstacles, Mr. Trang's Dap Thanh Forest Products Trading Joint Stock Company is currently the main provider of high-quality seedlings and tea products in the Ba Che area.

The renowned five-star OCOP product

Mr. Trang not only mastered planting techniques, but he also developed the process of sublimation drying manufacturing so that the color, taste, and medicinal characteristics of camellia are preserved. In addition, he standardizes the whole process of tea production, from selection to packaging.

According to Mr. Trang, the current price of dried camellia blossoms is VND 15 million per kilogram, while a box of dipped tea leaves costs VND 60,000 and a package of entire dried tea leaves costs VND 50,000. In addition to money from camellia blossoms and tea leaves, he successfully raised and sold 10,000 tea seedlings for VND 35,000 for each tree.

From a wild forest tree, golden camellia tea was revived and became Ba Che's primary crop. The flower, which is compared to gold because of its high and consistent selling price, has been producing hundreds of millions of dong annually for producers, allowing people to not only escape poverty but also earn a fortune.

Ba Che golden camellia tea is now a 5-star certified OCOP product, the highest certification in Quang Ninh Province's One Commune, One Product (OCOP) Program. Additionally, the product aims to become a national OCOP product.

This valuable tree is now thriving from seedlings to highly refined goods. 

Ba Che Golden camellia tea is cultivated, processed, and propagated in accordance with stringent requirements. The preliminary processing and processing conform to the criteria of the advanced quality management system HACCP and ISO 9001: 2015, and use sublimation drying technology to preserve the pure flavor and numerous beneficial nutrients inherent to golden camellia tea.

There are almost 300 hectares of golden camellia tea plants in the Ba Che district. The production of this valuable medicinal plant not only produces jobs and helps people become wealthy, but also generates distinctive cultural values, so laying the groundwork for the mountainous region of Ba Che to promote tourism services.

In order to increase the economic worth of golden camellia tea, Mr. Trang's firm has sponsored the procurement of flowers from ethnic minorities in the Ba Che region for processing into goods, therefore providing jobs and a stable income for a large number of local employees.