33 percent of farming cooperatives efficiently operate: Ministry

Tea farming cooperative Thai Nguyen. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – About 33 percent of agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam operate efficiently, mostly in horticulture, animal husbandry and aquaculture, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The effective cooperatives have developed on a scale suitable to their specialities and engaged in safe and high-tech farming production. They have also created links with other agribusinesses and organisations to expand production and distribution channels.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has developed high-tech farming cooperatives and linked them with agribusiness in tea, coffee, pepper, rice and shrimp in each of Vietnam’s regions.

The ministry has also selected 156 cooperatives and 19 cooperative groups to take part in a Government programme to pilot and multiply new-style cooperative models in the Mekong Delta from 2016-2020.

It is also formulating a new scheme to develop 15,000 effective cooperatives and cooperative unions by 2020.

By the end of 2016, the country had 21 agricultural cooperative unions and more than 10,700 farming cooperatives with nearly 4 million members. Each cooperative has 367 members in average