Vietnam Tea Export Data: 682 Exporters, Markets and Prices

Even among the 73 exporters above US$1 million, 23 shipped to only one country and 41 sent at least 80% of their value to a single market; only 8 shipped to ten countries or more. For a buyer outside the largest markets, that narrows the field: an exporter that already handles your country's documents, residue limits and payment terms is one of a few dozen, not one of several hundred. Our guide to choosing a reliable Vietnamese tea supplier lists twelve checks to run on any of them.

Green, black, scented and oolong tea: who buys what

Averages per kilogram use only the lines declared in kilograms or tons. Most matcha is declared in packs, so no average is shown for it.

Three patterns matter for buyers:

• Green tea is a large, spread-out trade tied to one region. Two thirds of its value is declared for Afghanistan, and the five largest green-tea exporters hold only 24% of it. Prices for the common grades are set by that market; our green tea grades guide explains OP, OPA, Pekoe and the fannings.
• Black tea is more concentrated and goes everywhere. The five largest exporters hold 41% of black tea value, and no destination takes more than 11%. Its average value is lower than green tea's, partly because much of it is broken grades, fannings and dust for tea bags. See the CTC and orthodox black tea guides.
• Scented tea and oolong are small, higher-value niches. Scented tea goes almost entirely to Taiwan, the market our Taiwan bubble tea guide covers. Oolong averages US$3.97 per kilogram and comes mainly from exporters registered in Lam Dong (39% of oolong value), Son La (27%) and Yen Bai (11%).

Which countries buy Vietnamese tea: declared destinations

Seven more markets each took between 0.9% and 2.4% of the value:

Afghanistan or Pakistan? These figures use the destination written on each declaration. The country tables that Vietnam Customs publishes show Pakistan as the largest market, with about a third of the value of Vietnam tea exports in 2025 (Vietnam tea exports: volume, prices and markets). Most tea for Afghanistan is landed at Karachi and moves overland in transit, which is the likely reason the two sources differ.

That transit route is also why the late-2025 problem at Karachi hit Vietnamese green tea so hard: nearly 500 containers of Vietnamese tea were held at the port (Cong Thuong newspaper) until Pakistan allowed them to be re-exported on 31 December 2025 (Vietnam News).

Other points in the tables:

• The United States has the most exporters, 204, for only 3.8% of the value: many small specialty and retail shipments go there, alongside bulk black tea. Our guide to importing tea from Vietnam to the USA covers the FDA and customs steps.
• Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand pay the lowest unit values (US$0.67 to US$0.95 per kilogram), consistent with low-priced black tea grades for blending and tea bags.
• Saudi Arabia pays the highest average of the large black-tea markets, US$2.68 per kilogram, and only ten Vietnamese exporters ship there. See Saudi Arabia and the UAE for the grades and standards it asks for.
• Iraq takes only black tea, from nine exporters; Russia takes 81% black tea from 34. Our Iraq, Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan guides give the grades and documents each market expects.

Vietnam tea export prices: what the declared values include

Declared values are not ex-factory prices. By value, 71% of Vietnam's tea exports were declared on cost-and-freight terms (C&F 43%, CFR 28%), 10% FOB and 9% CIF, with most of the rest on delivered-at-frontier (DAF, 5%) and other delivered terms used for land-border shipments. A CFR value includes sea freight to the destination port, so the averages above are higher than the FOB prices factories quote. They also blend every grade: US$1.32 per kilogram for black tea combines whole-leaf grades such as OPA with fannings and dust that often sell below US$1. For grade-by-grade FOB prices, see our Vietnam tea price guide; for what each grade looks like, the tea leaf grades guide.

Where Vietnam's tea exporters are based

Provinces with fewer than five exporters are not shown. Names are as recorded on the declarations, some from before the July 2025 merger of provinces (Yen Bai is now part of Lao Cai).

Registration tells you where the head office is, not where the tea grows. Hanoi leads because many export companies keep their office in the capital while their factories are in Phu Tho, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang or Son La. Phu Tho is both a growing region and an exporting base: 39 exporters averaging US$1.4 million each. Ho Chi Minh City is the opposite: 304 registered exporters, mostly traders and retail brands, averaging about US$31,000 each. If a supplier's office is in a city, ask where the factory is and visit it or video-call it; our page on factories and gardens shows what to look for.

Vietnam tea exports by month: the February–March dip

Exports ran at US$21 million to US$26 million a month from July to January, then fell by more than half in February and March 2026. Two things combined. The Lunar New Year fell on 17 February 2026, factories close for one to two weeks around it, and the new spring crop is not ready until March or April. And green tea for Afghanistan dropped from US$8.0 million in January to US$1.1 million in March, which accounts for most of the fall. If you need tea in the first quarter, contract it in November or December and agree a shipping date before the holiday.

How to use Vietnam tea export data when you buy

1. Start from your market, not from a list of names. If your country takes few Vietnamese shipments, as with Saudi Arabia, Iraq or most of Europe, only a handful of exporters already ship there. Ask each supplier which of your neighbouring markets they serve and for a recent bill of lading with the buyer's name removed.
2. Ask whether the company is a factory, a trader or both. The declarations do not say. A factory controls processing and quality; a trader controls selection. Both can be good suppliers, but you should know which you are dealing with.
3. Read prices on the same terms. Compare FOB with FOB. A CFR quote that looks high may simply include freight; a quote far below the averages above for the same grade usually means a different grade.
4. Plan around February and March. Order for first-quarter shipment before the end of December.
5. Verify independently. Company registration numbers can be checked on the national business registry, shipment history with commercial customs-data services, certificates with the body that issued them. Our import guide lists the documents to ask for. As a factory exporter of black and green tea with factories in Phu Tho and Yen Bai, we publish our CTC, orthodox black tea and green tea grades with indicative FOB prices.

How we compiled this data

• Declarations: 41,255 export declaration lines under HS 0902 (tea) for shipments from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, from a commercial customs-data service.
• Exporters and buyers: each exporting company is counted once. Buyers are counted by consignee name, so one buyer written in two ways counts twice.
• Type of tea: we classified each line from its goods description. About 0.5% of the value (tea whose type is not stated, white tea, pu-erh, instant tea and a few lines that are not tea) is left out of the type table.
• Destination: the country written on the declaration, which may be a transit country rather than the final market.
• Value: the declared value in US dollars, on whatever delivery term was declared (CFR, FOB, CIF and others), not converted to FOB.
• Volume and averages: only lines declared in kilograms or tons, 96.5% of the value. Lines declared in bags, cartons or packs count in value but not in volume; the average is the value of the weighed lines divided by their weight.
• Confidentiality: we publish totals only, no company names or individual shipments, and hide provinces with fewer than five exporters.

These totals differ from the official statistics because the period differs and our volume leaves out lines without a weight. For calendar 2025, Vietnam Customs reported 136,952 tons worth US$237.9 million (Vietnam tea exports).

Frequently asked questions

How many tea exporters does Vietnam have?

682 companies declared tea exports under HS 0902 between July 2025 and June 2026. Only 73 of them exported more than US$1 million, and those 73 shipped 80% of the value; 509 exported less than US$100,000 each.

How much tea does Vietnam export a year?

In calendar 2025, 136,952 tons worth US$237.9 million, according to Vietnam Customs. The declarations for July 2025 to June 2026 add up to US$234.9 million; their volume, 132,101 tons, leaves out lines declared in bags or cartons rather than by weight.

What is the biggest market for Vietnamese tea?

By the destination declared on customs forms, Afghanistan, with US$93.2 million or 39.7% of the value in the twelve months to June 2026, almost all of it green tea. In the country tables published by Vietnam Customs, Pakistan is the largest market, most likely because Afghan-bound tea passes through the port of Karachi. Taiwan, China, Russia and the United States follow.

What is the average export price of Vietnamese tea?

The declared average was US$1.92 per kilogram for green tea and US$1.32 for black tea, with oolong at US$3.97 and scented tea at US$2.49. Most of these values are on CFR terms and include sea freight, and they average all grades together.

Is the Vietnamese tea export trade concentrated in a few companies?

No. The ten largest exporters held 28% of the value and the top fifty 68%. Black tea is more concentrated than green tea: the five largest black-tea exporters held 41% of black tea value, against 24% for green tea.

When do Vietnamese tea exports slow down?

In February and March. In 2026 monthly exports fell from US$20.7 million in January to US$9.7 million in February, because of the Lunar New Year holiday, the gap before the spring crop and a sharp fall in shipments for Afghanistan.

Where does this Vietnam tea export data come from?

From Vietnam customs export declarations for HS 0902, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026: 41,255 declaration lines that we compiled and classified by type of tea. The declarations are a commercial dataset, so we publish totals only, not individual shipments or company figures.

Sources

• Vietnam Customs, Preliminary export statistics by commodity, December 2025, January 2026.
• Vietnam Customs, Export statistics by commodity, January–August 2026, September 2026.
• Vietnam Customs, Exports by country and main commodity, August 2026, September 2026.
• Vietnam customs export declarations, HS 0902, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026: commercial dataset of 41,255 declaration lines, compiled and classified by Goo Farm Tea Vietnam, October 2026 (not publicly available).
• Cong Thuong newspaper, Ministry of Industry and Trade moves to clear 500 tea containers stuck in Pakistan (in Vietnamese), December 2025.
• Vietnam News, Pakistan allows re-export of nearly 500 tea containers of Viet Nam stranded at Karachi Port, 31 December 2025.
• VietnamPlus, Vietnam ranks fifth in the world in tea exports, 6 November 2024.
• VnEconomy, Tea exports: from falling volumes to a chance to reposition value in 2026 (in Vietnamese), 11 February 2026.