Vietnam is expected to ship abroad 95,000 tons of tea in 2006, up more than 6.7 percent over 2005, according to the Vietnam Tea Association on Thursday.

With the anticipated volume, the country's tea export revenues are estimated to exceed the threshold of 100 million U.S. dollars this year, the association said, noting that export prices of Vietnamese tea are equal to 55-70 percent of those of other countries'similar products.

Vietnam is expanding export markets, intensifying trade promotion, raising tea's quality, and building the products' trademarks.

The country sold overseas 72,000 tons of tea worth 76 million dollars in the first nine months of this year, posting respective year-on-year surges of 25 percent and 22.7 percent, said the association.

It currently houses some 110,000 hectares of tea trees.

Source: Xinhua