Hanoi (VNA) – As many as 2,200 new agricultural enterprises were set up in2018, up 12.3 percent compared to 2017 and pushing the total number of firms inthe sector to 9,235, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(MARD).

Theaverage registered capital for each firm is 17.8 billion VND (765,400 USD),higher than the national average at 10.2 billion VND (438,600 USD) per company.

Notably,agro-forestry-fishery is one of the two sectors whose number of operational enterprisesis higher than those with halted activities.

Alongwith the booming of small- and medium-sized businesses, a number of large firmshave increased investment in agriculture, especially high-tech agriculture,including Nafoods, TH, Dabaco Vietnam, Masan, Lavifood, and Doveco.

Underthe encouragement of many policies supporting enterprises to invest inagriculture and rural areas, agricultural product processing and storage, aswell as the support industry have also developed.

In2018 alone, 16 modern factories for vegetable, pork, and poultry processing werebuilt with a total investment of about 8.7 trillion VND (371.1 million USD),contributing to enhancing the quality and diversifying agro-forestry-fisheriesproducts.

Throughoutthe year, the MARD continued to transform agricultural cooperatives in linewith the Law on Cooperatives. After six years implementing the law, the numberof new agricultural cooperatives has increased to 5,816, including 1,935 set upin 2018.

Bythe end of 2018, Vietnam has 39 federations of agricultural cooperatives, alongwith 13,400 cooperatives, a rise of 14.6 percent over 2017. Of the total, 55percent operated profitably. The ratio of cooperatives involved in sellingproducts for its members also rose to 20 percent, instead of the previous 10percent.

Meanwhile,the country now has 35,500 farms, a rise of 1,500 farms against 2017.

Sofar, connectivity in agricultural production and selling in line with valuechains has become more popular with 6,800 models covering about 1 millionhectares, together with many animal breeding and fish farming facilitiesjoining the chain.–VNA