Processed Dong Tao chicken - a rare Vietnamese breed - for sale at a supermarket. Viet Nam plans to export chicken to Japan from next year. 

To reach the target, the ministry has issued a plan to supervise production chains to process export quality chicken.

The domestic animal husbandry industry has supplied between 500,000 and 700,000 tonnes of meat and eight billion eggs per year but only salted duck eggs have been exported to Hong Kong and Singapore and the remaining was consumed in the domestic market, the ministry said.

Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department, said that since 2015, with regard to the export of animal husbandry products, the industry had developed a plan to establish a safe region without diseases for poultry and cattle, for a certification of food safety from the veterinary department and meet regulations of the World Organisation for Animal Health that would help boost the export of meat to other countries.

If the local enterprises receive permission to export chicken to Japan next year, it would be a good beginning for the local husbandry industry in exporting chicken to other countries in the future, Duong said.

However, at present, local enterprises are unable to export chicken to Japan because veterinary offices in Viet Nam and Japan have not reached a consensus on the export code. The ministry has worked with its partner in Japan to resolve the obstacle, he said.

By 2017, the local enterprises which want to export processed chicken must complete the procedures to send to the relevant offices of countries that have made a demand for Viet Nam's poultry products, according to the ministry.

It said that they should also submit the proposal to the ministry's Animal Husbandry Department and other relevant offices. They must actively have market research, find trade partners, and ensure to fulfil the requirements on the production of chicken of importing countries.

The ministry expects that after Japan, Viet Nam could export chicken to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and South Korea from 2018. 

VNS