‘Pepper king’ spices up market with $62 per kg coffee husk tea

Four years after it began exporting coffee husk tea, the Phuc Sinh Consumer JSC has introduced it in the domestic market at nearly VND1.5 million ($61.83) per kg.

The company, a subsidiary of the Phuc Sinh Group - a big player in pepper and coffee exports, officially launched Cascara Blue Son La tea bags in the domestic market Friday in Ho Chi Minh City.

Coffee husks, typically discarded or used as fertilizer, was brewed to make a flavorful drink about 18 years ago by a Salvadoran farmer.

Phuc Sinh researched the possibility of producing tea from coffee husks in Vietnam and imported modern processing lines for commercial production.

It succeeded in making high quality cascara tea and began supplying it to high-end markets like the EU, U.S. and Australia at prices 7-8 times higher than coffee.

Phan Minh Thong, general director of Phuc Sinh Group, told the The Investor that they were selling cascara tea in Vietnam for VND1.47 million ($61.83) per kg.

Thong said coffee husks provide considerable nutrition and deliver other health benefits, helping maintain a healthy weigh and improving digestion. Cascara tea's antioxidants keep consumers’ skin smooth, he added.

Furthermore, Thong said, Cascara tea processing and production help resolve some environmental issues and promote circular agriculture, which was a global trend now.

Thong said the group wants to introduce new Vietnamese brand products to the world.

“Many friends from India and Columbia have exclaimed that "Vietnamese cascara tea is so delicious!"

“I think that Vietnamese people are really hard-working and talented but not good at promoting their products to the world. This is Phuc Sinh's strength. I went on a European tour recently and got a lot of tea orders."

Vu Viet Thang, general director of Phuc Sinh Son La, a subsidiary of the Phuc Sinh Group, said that the company has partnered with 33 coffee farmers in the northern province of Son La to supply 330 tons of ripe coffee. Ten kilograms of fresh coffee are needed to produce two kilograms of green coffee and one kilogram of cascara tea. After removing low-quality berries, cascara tea production is now limited to roughly 20 tons per year. Foreign buyers order 90% of the tea produced, he said.

Thang said production of cascara tea is environmentally friendly and promotes sustainable development. Usually coffee husks ferment, become sour and start to smell in one or two days, he explained.

He also said that his company’s research has found that the sugar content in Arabica coffee husks in Son La was higher than in other locations at an average of about 22%.

On October 21, Phuc Sinh Son La JSC opened a cascara tea processing line in the northern highland province’s Mai Son district with a capacity of 10 tons of ripe coffee per day, equivalent to one ton of finished tea per day.

Thong, known as Vietnam’s "pepper king," told The Investor that at the spice accounted for 30% of the group’s total revenue of $300 million in 2022. Coffee accounted for 60%, and other items like cinnamon and coconut made up the remaining 10%.