Vietnam ’s economy has thrived thanks to its agricultural sector, said the UK daily the Financial Times.

“Vietnam is the world’s biggest exporter of cashew nuts and black pepper, the second biggest exporter of rice and coffee and a major global supplier of farmed fish ”, the daily said.

Vietnam ’s millions of smallholding farmers have capitalised on the country’s integration into global markets to become successful producers of high volume, low value agricultural commodities, it said.

The newspaper quoted Prakash Jhanwer, who heads up the Vietnam, Indonesia and Laotian offices for Olam International, the Singapore-based agricultural commodities giant, as saying that Vietnam has some of the most productive farmers in Asia, however, the country will face major challenges when it begins to develop and restructure the agricultural sector.-VNA