LAOS
With growing demand from overseas markets for Loatian tea, the high mountain areas in the northwest and southwest of the country have the potential to expand their production of quality organic teas. The 400- to 1,000-year-old wild tea trees that grow in the high mountain areas are plucked to make teas that fetch high prices in international markets.
Tea farmers in Phongsaly in the far north, Odomxai and Xayaboury in the northwest, and Champassak in the southwest, are being encouraged to plant more bushes and expand production. They are being helped with Chinese investment and output is already increasing.
Tea plantations in Pakbaeng district will soon have the capacity to process up to 8,000 metric tons of tea per year; Oudomxai has is ready to process good quality tea for the domestic market and to export to China; an organic tea trader in Pakxong has steadily expanded his tea plantation had steadily increased in line with demand since 2014; and Phongsaly province has the capacity to process up to 5,000 m.t. of tea per year with tea now being grown on around 2,650 hectares of land.
Sales of tea to Cambodia, Thailand, and into the domestic market have increased from 300-500 kg per month, but farmers still need technical training to continue to improve both output and quality.