Hanoi, Dec 13 (IANS): Vietnam aims to further push its coffee industry in the international market by focusing on sustainable development and intensively-processing methods, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Tuesday.

The country's coffee industry has made steady headway in the international competitiveness rankings with a processing capacity of 2.36 million tonnes per year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The industry should shift its focus to intensively-processing methods to improve its position in the international scene and integrate digital technology into coffee production to enhance the links among players along the supply chain, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.

The country has the highest yields globally with an output of 2.4 tonnes of coffee per hectare, higher than those of the runner-ups, according to Gro Intelligence, a global agriculture data provider.

In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam reaped more than $3.5 billion from exporting over 1.5 million tonnes of coffee, up 31.5 perc ent and 10.2 per cent year on year, respectively, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Its largest importers include the European Union, some Asian countries and the US, with Robusta coffee making up 75 per cent of the export.