VIETNAM: Nation ranks third in rubber

But despite the production boom, the annual earnings of USD2.85 billion were down 12.6 per cent on the previous year due to a drop in value.

Last year, the Vietnamese natural rubber price fell 33 per cent, due to reduced demand from China, its biggest consumer, and the increasing application of synthetic rubber over natural rubber.

Regardless, recent efforts mean Viet Nam has become the third largest exporter of natural rubber in the world after Thailand and Indonesia.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) had previously forecasted that Viet Nam would produce 955,000 tonnes of in 2012, and in doing so would replace Malaysia as the world's third biggest rubber producer.

According to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, by the end of 2012, Viet Nam had roughly 910,000 ha of rubber trees, accounting for 7 per cent of the total global rubber area and surpassing the planning objectives of reaching 800,000 ha in 2015.

The capacity of Vietnamese rubber trees now stand at 1.7 tonnes per ha, which also ranks as the third highest worldwide.

According to VRA's General director Tran Ngoc Thuan, the Government has approved plans to develop the rubber industry until 2015 with a vision to extend until 2020.

Under the plan, the country will grow 800,000 hectares of rubber trees, which will provide 1.2 million tonnes of rubber latex per annum by 2015. Of this, 30 per cent will be used for the domestic processing industry and the rest exported.

(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)
Source: Daily "Vietnam News", Hanoi; 9 Jan 2013