Vietnam eyes bigger vegetable, fruit export earnings

Vietnam plans to earn 1 billion U.S. dollars from exporting over 1.4 million tons of vegetables, fruits and flowers in 2010, according to local newspaper New Hanoi Friday

Under plans of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country will, in 2010, export 700,000 tons of fresh vegetables, fruits and flowers, and more than 700,000 tons of processed and semi-processed ones.

Vietnam, whose vegetable and fruit export turnover rose 30.8 percent to 234 million dollars in 2005, is estimated to gain 24 million dollars this month, up 6 percent against last January, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Now, the ministry is expanding cultivation areas, building more material zones adjacent to processing plants, and encouraging relevant factories, traders and exporters to renovate technologies and pay more attention to such issues as quality and packaging. The ministry has targeted 550,000 hectares of vegetables, 750,000 hectares of orchards, and 10,000 hectares of flowers by 2010, which are expected to annually turn out 11 million tons of vegetables, 9 million tons of fruits and 3.5 billion of flower sprigs, said the newspaper.

By the end of 2005, Vietnam had over 1.2 million hectares of vegetables and orchards with total output of nearly 12.7 million tons.

Source: Xinhua