HANOI, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is accelerating agricultural restructure to double its farmers' annual income to 66 million Vietnamese dong (over 2,900 U.S. dollars) in the next five years, its agriculture minister said.
On average, a Vietnamese farmer currently has an annual income of 33 million Vietnamese dong (over 1,450 U.S. dollars), while a Vietnamese person has an income of roughly 50 million Vietnamese dong (2,200 U.S. dollars), local daily newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) on Tuesday quoted Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong as saying.
All 63 cities and provinces nationwide are speeding up agricultural restructure, focusing on groups of agro-products which are strength of specific localities and favored by specific export markets, and intensifying application of high technology in producing vegetables, flowers, seafood and other key items, Cuong said.
Vietnam has identified a group of 10 key farm produces which have either high production and export growths or high export values or both, such as wood, wood-based products, vegetables and fruits.
The Vietnamese government has set a target of increasing total agricultural product export to 40 billion U.S. dollars this year, up from 36.5 billion U.S. dollars last year, he said.
The Vietnamese forestry sector is expected to make export turnovers of at least 9 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 1 billion U.S. dollars against 2017. Meanwhile, export of cereals, cash crops, fruits and vegetables are expected to surpass 20 billion U.S. dollars.
Besides export markets, Vietnam is paying more attention to the local market, centering on producing high-grade food and foodstuffs.
