The rubber industry earned 1.67 billion US dollars from 600,000 tonnes of exports since the beginning of the year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

This was an increase of 7.7 percent in volume and 92 percent in value, the ministry said.

About 90,000 tonnes were shipped in October alone.

Director of the ministry's Information Technology and Statistics Department Nguyen Viet Chien attributed the increased value to high prices.

Since early 2010 the average export price has been about 2,770 US dollars per tonne, a year-on-year increase of 84 percent, Chien said, adding that the jump was due to high demand.

"While the demand for rubber in the world market has strongly increased, the supply from main exporters such as Thailand and Indonesia has decreased due to bad weather conditions," he said.

General secretary of the Vietnam Rubber Association Ms Tran Thuy Hoa said the goal of 1.3 billion US dollars for the whole year had been reached.

"This year, the industry is able to get revenue of 2 billion US dollars," she added

Vietnam currently exports rubber to various markets, including China, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Germany and the US.

To boost exports, the association continues to encourage companies to improve quality and expand their markets to the EU and Asia.

(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)