Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing trend in analyzing international trade from the
perspective of “value chains”, particularly in agro industry. For many countries, particularly developing
countries including Vietnam, agriculture is the backbone of economic development and the main source of
income. Together with rice production, Vietnam is also known as one of the most ancient home of tea. Tea
industry in Vietnam has a history of up to three thousand years and tea plays a vital role in income
improvement and poverty alleviation in rural areas, especially in the Northern Uplands and North East
South. In addition, tea is a high-value product that Viet Nam is already exporting to many other countries
and territories worldwide. Having all these importance, there are still challenges facing the Vietnam tea
industry including high fragmentation, small-scale operation and weak linkage among participants in the
tea manufacturing process. This paper, hence, seeks to investigate the roles and bene