HO CHI MINH CITY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is encouraging organic fertilizer production and consumption from available domestic materials, Vietnam News Agency reported on Sunday.

The country's agriculture ministry plans to set up national planning on fertilizer production which looks to larger production and consumption of organic fertilizer, Vietnam News Agency on Sunday quoted Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong as saying.

"The ministry will attract more investment and take advantage of sources from developed countries and international organizations to transfer and apply latest technology," he said.

According to the ministry, Vietnam's farming sector uses 11 million tons of fertilizers each year, but only 8 percent of which is organic.

Vietnam has 10 million hectares of farmland. Organic production covers only 43,000 hectares of land which means organic fertilizer has not been widely used.

Many fertilizer enterprises in Vietnam have switched to manufacturing organic fertilizer, and they have also thought about exporting it. Binh Dien Fertilizer Company said Vietnam's organic fertilizer is competing with that of other Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

By late 2017, Vietnam had 713 organic fertilizer products manufactured by 180 licensed facilities which can produce up to 2.5 million tons of fertilizer per annum.