February 6, 2012

Vietnam eyes US$40 billion agro-forestry-seafood exports by 2020

An earning of US$40 billion from agro-forestry-seafood products export is being targeted by Vietnam by 2020 as well as VND70 million (US$3,341) production value per hectare of agricultural land.

This is one of the targets the country has set in its agricultural development master plan until 2020 with a vision toward 2030, which was approved by the Prime Minister on February 2.

By 2030, the agro-forestry-seafood export turnover will increase to US$60 billion and the production value over one hectare of agricultural land will be VND100-120 million (US$4,773-5,728).

Regarding the sector's structure, by 2020, agriculture will account for 64.7%; forestry, 2%; and seafood, 33.3%. The forest coverage is expected to reach 44-45% in 2020.

To achieve these goals, an additional 1.1 million hectares will be reclaimed and allocated for agro-forestry-fisheries development in the 2011-2020 period, including 37,000 hectares for rice growing.

Total land acreage for rice cultivation will be kept at 3,812 million hectares since 2020 and rice processing capacity will be raised to 25 million tonnes per year. Between 16.2-16.5 million hectares of land will be allocated for forestry development by 2020, an increase of 879,000 hectares against 2010.

The country will build industrial-scale farming areas for key aquatic species such as tra fish, tiger prawn, white-leg shrimp, mollusc, and tilapia. The total volume of seafood products for export is slated to reach 1.55 million tonnes in 2015 and 1.9 million tonnes in 2020. The seafood processing capacity is expected to increase from 6,500 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes per day.

The area for salt production will be 14,500 hectares, with the goal of producing two million tonnes of salt.