China's rare earth industry has to produce more high-end products by further reducing the number of producers in the next five years, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for the industry released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday.

According to the plan, rare earth with higher added value will account for 50 percent of the total output by 2020, up from 25 percent in 2015.

"The exploitation should be controlled while the added value should be increased," said Jia Yinsong, director of the ministry's rare earth office.