BEIJING — China strives to build a more competitive mulberry silk industry by 2025, according to a government action plan.

China will scale up silkworm breeding and mulberry growing and make silk production intelligent over the next five years, according to the plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other central government departments.

China will establish a batch of mulberry fields each with an area of over 100,000 mu (about 6,666.67 hectares) by 2025, the plan said.

For years, the country has dominated the global mulberry silk industry as the world's largest silk producer, exporter and consumer.

China's output of cocoons and raw silk both accounted for over 80 percent of the world's total last year.

In 2019, China's mulberry fields covered a total area of 12 million mu. The annual output value of the country's silk industry reached 150 billion yuan (about $22 billion).