Vietnam, fast emerging as a key rubber producer and exporter, said on Friday it had the capacity to boost output to 800,000 tonnes by 2010 from an estimated 450,000 tonnes this year.
"This is the maximum we could produce," Le Dinh Vu, a deputy director with the state-run Vietnam General Rubber Corporation (Geruco), told Reuters in an interview. Geruco is Vietnam's largest rubber maker with 37 affiliates producing around 60 percent of the Southeast Asian nation's total rubber production.
The country's main rubber growing areas in the south, highlands and middle coastal region stood at 450,000 hectares in 2004. Hanoi has targeted 600,000 hectares by 2010, Vu said. "We have limited land. We also cannot increase more because the price of land is very expensive," he said.
Production of Standard Vietnamese Rubber (SVR) was seen at 450,000 tonnes this year, about the same as in 2003 and compared to 331,400 tonnes in 2002.
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