Green Tea From Vietnam: A Guide for Importers and Blenders

Why importers look at Vietnam green tea

Vietnam is roughly the fifth largest tea exporter in the world and ships tea to more than 70 countries. Green tea makes up roughly 30 percent of the country’s tea export value, and annual green tea output is usually put at roughly 165,000 metric tons. Most of that volume leaves the country as bulk leaf sold to traders, blenders and packers, who then sell it under their own names. Many consumers drink Vietnamese green tea without ever seeing the origin on a label.

For a professional buyer the case for Vietnam usually rests on three points:

• Price position. Vietnamese green tea often lands 15 to 25 percent below equivalent Chinese grades. For a blender or an RTD beverage maker buying by the container, that gap matters.
• Range of styles. The country makes pan-fired traditional leaf, steamed sencha-style leaf, broken grades for tea bags, jasmine-scented tea and a limited volume of certified organic tea.
• Supplier structure. Production is spread across private processors, former state companies and cooperatives, so there is usually more than one plant able to make a given spec.

The trade-off is consistency. Many small growers feed leaf into processors and traders, and quality can move between lots more than buyers expect. Much of this guide is about managing that risk. For background on the country’s tea history and styles, the Wikipedia article on Vietnamese tea is a reasonable starting point.

Where Vietnamese green tea is grown

Tea grows across the northern midlands, the northern mountains and the Central Highlands. Each area produces a different kind of leaf, so the region should be written into your spec rather than left to the supplier.

Lam Dong is the largest volume area. Figures reported by vietnamplus put Lam Dong tea at about 164,100 metric tons a year from more than 25,000 hectares, covering all tea types, not only green. Thai Nguyen is much smaller in volume but carries the strongest reputation inside Vietnam, especially for Tan Cuong tea. The northern mountains supply Shan Tuyet tea from tall, old trees and hold a good share of the organic-oriented volume.

A note on names: Vietnam merged a number of provinces in mid 2025. Yen Bai became part of Lao Cai and Ha Giang became part of Tuyen Quang. Bac Kan joined Thai Nguyen, while Dak Nong and Binh Thuan joined Lam Dong. The tea trade still uses the traditional region names, and suppliers will generally describe origin as “Yen Bai” or “Ha Giang” in conversation. When you check a business license or a certificate of origin, expect the new administrative province to appear instead. For a closer look at each area, see the regions overview.

Grades and styles you can buy

Vietnamese suppliers use a mix of local names and orthodox grading terms. The table below covers the grades most often traded for export.

Grade names are not standardized between suppliers. One factory’s OP can look like another factory’s FOP, and “BOP” can mean quite different particle sizes. Approve by sample and sample code, not by grade name alone. The green tea grades page describes each grade in more detail.

Two international standards are useful anchors in a spec. ISO 11287 defines green tea and sets chemical requirements such as minimum water extract and limits on total ash. ISO 1573 is the standard method for measuring moisture as loss in mass at 103 degrees C. Writing both references into the spec gives the supplier and your lab the same yardstick.

Pan-fired or steamed

Most Vietnamese green tea is pan-fired. Fresh leaf is withered briefly, fixed in a hot rotating drum or pan, then rolled and dried. The cup tends to be toasty and slightly sweet, with a yellow-green liquor. Sencha-style tea is fixed with steam instead of dry heat and rolled into a needle shape. It gives a greener liquor and a grassier, more vegetal profile closer to Japanese tea, which is why bottled tea and RTD buyers in Japan, Korea and Taiwan often specify it. If you are not sure which suits your product, ask for one sample of each at the same grade level and cup them side by side.

Compliance: residue limits come first

The most common reason a tea shipment is rejected is pesticide residue, not taste. Each destination sets its own maximum residue limits (MRLs), and a lot that clears one market can fail another.

• European Union: Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 sets MRLs for pesticides in food, including tea. The current limits are published through the European Commission pesticide residue pages.
• Japan: the positive list system has applied since 2006. Substances without a specific limit fall under a uniform limit of 0.01 ppm, which is strict for tea.
• United States: the EPA sets tolerances in 40 CFR Part 180 and the FDA enforces them at import. A residue with no tolerance established for tea is a violation at any detectable level.

The practical rule is simple: test the actual production lot against the destination limits at an accredited lab before the container is loaded. A supplier’s test report from an earlier lot is a useful screen, but it does not describe your lot.

You will also see supplier-side certifications in the Vietnamese market, including VietGAP, GlobalG.A.P., USDA Organic, EU Organic, JAS Organic, Rainforest Alliance, HACCP, ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000. Ask for a copy of any certificate a supplier mentions and check the certificate number, scope and expiry date with the issuing body. Organic volume in Vietnam is limited and typically carries a 25 to 40 percent premium over conventional tea.

Commercial terms to expect

Terms vary by supplier and grade, but most bulk green tea trade out of Vietnam falls within these ranges.

FOB is the most common starting point for quotes, and northern teas may also be offered FOB Hai Phong. Payment terms are agreed directly between buyer and supplier. Many first orders use a deposit with the balance against shipping documents, and letters of credit are used on larger contracts. Whatever you agree, put the quality conditions (retention sample, inspection and residue testing) into the contract, not only into email.

Three failure modes and how to avoid them

The shipment does not match the sample

Traders and some processors blend leaf from many farms. The sample you approved may have come from a better lot than the one that is packed. The fix is a retention sample: when you approve a sample, ask the supplier to seal a matching portion at the factory with your reference code. Before the container is sealed, your inspector draws from the packed lot and compares it with that retention sample.

Pesticide residue rejection at the port

A rejected container can mean port storage, re-export or destruction costs on top of the lost goods and time. Test the production lot against the destination MRLs before shipping and name the lab and the test panel in the contract. Agree in advance what happens if a result fails.

A trader presenting as a factory

Some sellers describe themselves as factories but buy finished tea from others. That is not always a problem, but you need to know who is actually processing your tea. Check the business license and its registered activities, ask for export history, request a live video walk-through of the plant and make sure your inspector goes to the actual processing site, not an office or warehouse.

A practical buying sequence

1. Write the spec. Grade, leaf style, region, moisture, target market for residue limits, packing, volume and Incoterm. The spec-based RFQ form walks through these fields.
2. Request samples. Ask two or three suppliers for 100 to 250 g of the same spec so you can compare like with like.
3. Cup and test. Cup the samples, run a residue screen on the shortlist and approve one sample with a reference code.
4. Contract. Agree the proforma invoice and write the retention sample, inspection and residue testing conditions into the contract.
5. Production. Allow 3 to 5 weeks.
6. Inspection. Your third-party inspector, such as SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek, checks the lot against the retention sample before the container is sealed.
7. Shipment. Allow 25 to 35 days at sea to the US West Coast or main EU ports.

How greenteavietnam.com fits in

greenteavietnam.com is an independent matching service. You send a green tea RFQ, we do a preliminary check of the request and introduce you to up to 3 Vietnamese green tea factories, cooperatives or processors that suit it. From there you work directly with the supplier: contract, payment and shipment are between you and them. The service is free for buyers.

To be clear about the limits: we do not own farms, factories or stock. We do not run a QC team, we do not do on-site audits and we do not negotiate or ship on your behalf. Buyers arrange third-party inspection themselves, and we can tell you what to ask the inspector to check. If your spec is sensitive, an NDA can be signed on request before detailed specs are shared. More on how the service works is on the about page.

See also: the market page on green tea for Pakistan, Vietnam’s largest tea market by volume.

Send a green tea spec

If you have a grade, a volume and a destination market in mind, send it through the green tea RFQ form. We reply within 24 business hours with up to 3 suitable Vietnamese suppliers matched to your spec. The introduction is free for buyers, and you deal with the suppliers directly from there.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Wikipedia: Vietnamese tea
• European Commission: Pesticide maximum residue levels