AgriInnovation

At first glance, the global tea market appears “stable and familiar.” Yet beneath the surface, it is undergoing a clear transformation: consumers are no longer buying tea merely to drink it, but to purchase peace of mind, origin stories, and personalized experiences. As a result, the growth of the tea industry in the coming years will not come from selling more volume, but from selling what the market is actually willing to pay for.

According to Technavio, the global tea market is projected to grow by approximately USD 19.9 billion during 2024–2029 (CAGR ~5.5%), driven primarily by demand for “health-oriented” beverages and diversified flavor profiles [1]. Within this landscape, the specialty tea segment is growing faster than the market average because it targets the domain of “value-added”: teas identified by region, garden, season, and producer, and packaged as cultural products rather than anonymous raw materials [2], [3].

In many developed markets, “specialty” no longer refers solely to leaf quality, but to an entire system of standards and language: single origin, single garden, controlled processing, residue transparency, labor transparency, and environmental impact transparency. Buyers increasingly use these criteria as filters of trust in an era of supply-chain disruption and information overload.

Sales channels are also shifting—from reliance on importers and wholesale distribution toward e-commerce, subscription models, and experiential retail (workshops, tastings, tea pairing). As channels change, pricing power changes with them. Brands that control their narrative and quality data move closer to end consumers, capturing significantly higher margins [4].

Where Does the “Value” of Specialty Tea Reside?

Observing countries that are ahead in specialty tea development reveals three recurring “value axes.”

The first axis is verifiable origin.
In Japan, Taiwan, and China, many high-end teas are identified with remarkable precision: region, altitude, cultivar, season, plucking method, and producer. Tea becomes a “profile” rather than just a “package.” The more premium the tea, the thicker and richer the profile.

The second axis is processing technology for consistency.
Specialty tea is not necessarily “fully handcrafted.” On the contrary, many successful tea makers combine craftsmanship with systems that control temperature, humidity, and oxidation/fermentation time to stabilize flavor profiles across batches, reducing the risk of inconsistency. Reviews on tea product diversification consistently highlight the role of post-harvest management and processing technology in expanding value-added portfolios (premium teabags, cold brew, RTD, flavored teas, gift sets, etc.) [5].

The third axis is lifestyle-driven innovation.
Specialty tea is not limited to high-end matcha or oolong. It includes functional teas (sleep, digestion, beauty), convenient cold brews, “clean-label” bottled teas as alternatives to sugary drinks, and tea integrated into cocktails and desserts. Once tea enters the modern F&B ecosystem, its value is no longer measured by “kilograms of dry leaves,” but by “usage occasions” and “consumption contexts.”

Where Is Vietnam on the Global Tea Map?

Vietnam is a significant tea exporter, yet the familiar narrative persists: high volume, low value. For many years, Vietnamese tea exports have concentrated on bulk segments—supplying raw material for blends or foreign brands. The WTO Center has explicitly identified this as Vietnam’s “export identity challenge”: strong in production and raw material regions, but weak in value positioning and branding in premium segments [6]. World Tea News similarly notes Vietnam’s ambition to move deeper into the specialty market, while acknowledging that this journey requires systematic quality standardization, storytelling, and commercialization capability [7].

Crucially, Vietnam does not lack resources for specialty tea. We have ancient high-altitude Shan Tuyet tea trees, diverse microclimates, skilled tea makers, and powerful community stories. What is lacking is the transformation of these resources into coherent product systems and market systems. In many places, tea is still sold as an agricultural commodity, whereas specialty tea must be sold as a “work with a dossier”—standards, channels, experiences, and a community of drinkers.

How Is Technology Reshaping the Tea Industry?

If specialty tea is fundamentally a “trust-based” market, technology is increasingly the means of converting trust from sentiment into data.

One technological layer involves traceability and supply-chain transparency: QR codes, digital farm logs, batch data, and digital certifications. A second layer involves AI and machine learning for grading and identification. Recent studies show that combining spectral data (e.g., NIR/Raman) with machine-learning models can distinguish the geographical origin of teas (such as Pu-erh) with high accuracy, moving toward a “digital birth certificate” for each batch [8].

For Vietnam, this opens a highly practical pathway: if ancient Shan Tuyet tea is to enter the specialty map, its story must be accompanied by evidence—at minimum, traceability and batch-level quality dossiers, gradually advancing toward data-driven grading systems.

That said, we emphasize that technology cannot replace the spirit of tea. Technology serves one purpose: reducing risk and increasing reliability at scale. Specialty cannot rely on “a few excellent batches”; it must be able to replicate quality, replicate experience, and replicate trust when entering distant markets.

Vietnamese Specialty Tea: The Biggest Opportunity Starts with a Change in Mindset

In Vietnam, the main bottleneck rarely lies in machinery or raw material shortages. It lies in our habit of answering the question: “How many tons?” while the specialty market asks: “Who made this batch, where, in which season, how, and why is it valuable?”

When the question changes, the business model must change accordingly.

Instead of exporting raw materials, specialty tea must move toward a “small lot – high trust – high margin” model: small batches with thick dossiers, where value lies not in volume but in identification and consistent storytelling. Packaging should no longer be treated as the final step, but as an integral part of the product and experience. Beyond selling tea, producers must sell an ecosystem: workshops, tasting sets, tea pairing with local cuisine, tea tourism in highland regions, and direct-to-consumer cross-border channels.

Viewed this way, ancient Shan Tuyet tea is not merely “good tea,” but a cultural–ecological asset. High-quality oolong is not just an export commodity, but a platform for premium beverage innovation. Most importantly, Vietnamese specialty tea can become a compelling example of how Vietnam shifts from “exporting more” to “exporting with identity.”

Image source: eater.com

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References
[1] Technavio, “Tea Market… 2024–2029 Forecast,” 2024/2025.
[2] SkyQuest, “Specialty Tea Market… Size, Share & Forecast,” 2024. (MarketResearch.com)
[3] Fortune Business Insights, “Specialty Tea Market…,” 2024. (Technavio)
[4] Asia Food Journal, “Specialty teas adaptation… changing consumer preferences,” 2024. (Tridge)
[5] Agriculture Institute, “Product diversification & value addition in tea industry,” (accessed 2026). (World Tea News)
[6] WTO Center, “Creating an export identity for Vietnamese tea,” 2024/2025. (The Business Research Company)
[7] World Tea News, “Vietnam sets ambitious targets… global specialty market,” 2024. (Nature)
[8] C. Shao et al., “Intelligent geographical origin traceability of Pu-erh tea based on multispectral feature fusion,” Food Chemistry, vol. 492, 2025. (sciencedirect.com)

This afternoon, in the middle of a long working day, if you pour yourself a glass of lightly chilled passion fruit juice, you may notice something very clearly: passion fruit does more than quench your thirst. It carries a distinctive flavor—gently tart, deeply aromatic, unmistakably tropical yet never overpowering. In this week’s Afternoon Tea with KisStartup, we take a closer look at Vietnamese passion fruit—an industry that is growing rapidly and holds remarkable potential for value-added processing.

From a familiar fruit to an “export star”

Few would have imagined that from a backyard fruit, Vietnam has now entered the top 10 passion fruit exporters globally. In 2023, export value reached approximately USD 222.5 million, and if growth momentum continues, exports could reach USD 240–250 million by 2025. Vietnamese passion fruit is now present in more than 20 markets, including China, the EU, and Australia, and is completing the final steps to enter the U.S. market.

This reflects a critical shift: passion fruit is no longer just a fresh fruit for domestic consumption, but a global industrial ingredient for beverages, processed foods, desserts, and functional products.

Natural advantages, perfectly aligned

Vietnam enjoys conditions that few passion fruit–producing countries can match. The Central Highlands—accounting for over 86% of planted area and more than 90% of output—offers a cool plateau climate and fertile basalt soil. Harvest can begin after just 4–5 months, with high and stable yields, and in many areas, production is possible year-round—an advantage highly valued by international buyers.

Both purple and yellow Vietnamese passion fruit are praised for their strong aroma, balanced sweet–sour taste, and high juice content. Purple varieties suit fresh consumption, desserts, and premium beverages, while yellow varieties are ideal for industrial processing due to their high yield, stable color, and consistency.

Value lies in deep processing

Notably, more than 80% of Vietnam’s passion fruit output is already processed rather than exported fresh. This provides a strong foundation for higher value creation. Current products include juice, frozen purée, and concentrates—widely used in beverages, ice cream, bakery, yogurt, and functional foods.

Yet the potential goes far beyond juice. From an innovation perspective, passion fruit can evolve into:

• Premium purée and concentrates for beverages and FMCG
• Syrups, toppings, and bases for the F&B sector
• Extracts rich in polyphenols and natural vitamin C for functional foods
• Freeze-dried or spray-dried powders for snacks and instant drinks
• Even natural flavorings to replace synthetic aromas in high-end products

Value creation is not just about technology, but about designing products that truly match market needs rather than selling raw materials.

A rapidly opening market

The global passion fruit market is projected to grow at over 5% annually, potentially reaching nearly USD 7 billion in the early 2030s. Consumer trends are strongly favoring natural beverages, tropical flavors, and clean-label ingredients—all areas where passion fruit excels.

China’s phytosanitary protocol, Australia’s market opening, and the upcoming approval from the U.S. are highly positive signals. However, these opportunities come with stricter requirements on traceability, plant health, food safety, and sustainability.

The challenge ahead

For Vietnamese passion fruit to grow not only in volume but also in value, the path forward is clear: standardize varieties and growing regions, invest more deeply in advanced processing, and build a strong reputation for Vietnamese passion fruit as a reliable, high-quality ingredient. This is also fertile ground for innovation-driven enterprises, agri-food startups, and technology-based collaborations.

This afternoon, when you take a sip of passion fruit juice, you may simply feel refreshed by its aroma and coolness. But behind that flavor lies an entire industry in transformation—from a familiar tropical fruit to a high-value global ingredient. That is the story KisStartup hopes to share with you in every Wednesday Afternoon Tea: seeing Vietnamese agricultural products not only through the lens of consumption, but through an ecosystem mindset and a long-term future.

See you at the next Afternoon Tea with KisStartup.

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Nguyễn Đặng Tuấn Minh

In the agricultural ecosystem, spices have long been viewed as a small, low-value market where differentiation is difficult. Yet in this seemingly old and overlooked sector, a new generation of startups is proving the opposite: with a reimagined business model and targeted investment in supply-chain technology, spices can absolutely become a large-scale, sustainable, and venture-backable industry.

Looking at Growcoms in India, Agricorp in Nigeria, and Trianon Spices in Tanzania, one common pattern emerges: they do not succeed because of spices; they succeed because they rethink the entire value chain—from farms, processing, and logistics to market access and data. Spices are merely the entry point; the redesigned value chain is the real product.

1. Growcoms – When a Marketplace Learns to Manage Complexity

Growcoms’ appeal lies not in spices but in their ability to build a system of management rather than a mere e-marketplace. The spice sector is highly fragmented: smallholder farmers, scattered factories, and B2B buyers demanding strict standards yet lacking trust in suppliers. Growcoms steps into this gap by orchestrating the chain—procurement, testing, blending, packaging, traceability, and even developing new seasonings for FMCG clients.

Understanding that “buy–sell” is never enough, Growcoms built capabilities in quality control, data, and risk management—the things buyers are actually willing to pay for. They don’t need another marketplace; they need a system that guarantees each shipment can be traced back to every field, every processing batch, every testing standard.

Their most defensible competitive advantage is exactly this: supply-chain data accumulated over years. A new team can build a factory, but it cannot replicate the historical traceability and quality records recognized by global FMCG buyers.

2. Agricorp – Treating Spice Export Like a Serious Industrial Sector

Nigeria grows vast amounts of ginger yet lacks a global brand. Agricorp recognized this gap and refused to follow the traditional trader model. They invested in raw-material zones, built factories, established traceability, and standardized processes to bring Nigerian spices into demanding international markets.

What’s notable is that Agricorp doesn’t chase flashy tech. They pursue useful technology: farm-management systems, stable processing protocols, shipment traceability, and efficient logistics. For them, tech is a tool to reduce risk, increase reliability, and secure long-term contracts directly with buyers—where the real profit lies.

This approach fits the spice industry perfectly, where global buyers are obsessed with risk: quality, residues, microbiology, moisture, contamination. Whoever solves these risks wins the market. Agricorp did exactly that—and was rewarded with tens of millions of dollars in Series A funding.

3. Trianon Spices – When “Impact” Becomes a Business Model

Trianon doesn’t talk much about technology, but they focus on what the market values most today: spices must carry stories of soil, farmers, and sustainability. They source from more than a thousand farmers, teach regenerative agriculture, reduce chemical use, restore soil health, and improve quality. Then they process and sell to the EU—where buyers are willing to pay premiums for organic, fair-trade, and regenerative products.

Trianon succeeds because they understand that in the premium segment, buyers purchase both the story and the real value. Their core capability is not just factories or farms; it’s their ability to integrate impact into the product—and translate that into legitimate, transparent, sustainable price premiums.

The surprising part is that this model is not just socially impactful—Trianon’s profit margins have increased steadily year after year. Sustainability here is not a slogan; it is a business capability.

What Actually Makes These Startups Successful?

Three layers of capabilities set these startups apart from traditional spice businesses:

First, they see spices as a data industry.
Each shipment isn’t just cinnamon, pepper, or ginger; it’s a dataset—farm origin, quality parameters, processing steps, active compounds, microbiology, moisture, compliance. When data is standardized, global buyers trust you, and you can scale. Without data, everything is risk.

Second, they control the bottlenecks others ignore.
In spices, the bottleneck is always standardization and traceability—the factors that worry buyers most. The startup that solves this owns a lasting advantage.

Third, they don’t confine themselves to being “an agricultural company.”

Growcoms sells quality-management services.

Agricorp sells supply-chain reliability.

Trianon sells sustainability and impact.
Spices are merely the medium; real value lies in supply-chain thinking, technology, and social impact.

A Direction for Vietnam

Vietnam has ginger, pepper, cinnamon, star anise, and chili—more than Nigeria or Tanzania. What we lack is not raw materials but business models capable of addressing global bottlenecks:

• quality standardization
• supply stability
• deep traceability
• transparency and sustainability
• value-added product design instead of raw-material export

By learning from these startups, Vietnam can absolutely build spice-tech models for Northern ginger, Yên Bái–Lào Cai cinnamon, Central Highlands pepper, or Quảng Ngãi chili. If we do, we won’t just export spices—we’ll export transparent supply chains, sustainable stories, and new standards for the Vietnamese spice industry.

That is the real value—and exactly what investors, global buyers, and future consumers are seeking.

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