Vietnam's natural rubber production would rise 13 percent this year to 680,000 tonnes to meet growing demand at home and abroad, an industry official said on Tuesday. "The output is expected to increase steadily every year until 2010, thanks to advanced planting technology and good rubber variety," Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, general secretary of the Vietnam Rubber Association, told Reuters.
Vietnam's output, still small in comparison with top producers Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia, is near an industry target of 700,000 tonnes in 2010 from an acreage of 550,000 hectares (1.36 million acres), including areas in Laos and Cambodia.
Exports from Vietnam, the world's fourth-largest exporter, could reach 700,000 tonnes to 750,000 tonnes this year, compared with 719,000 tonnes last year, Hoa said. Vietnamese rubber companies would buy latex from neighbouring Cambodia as well as from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia for domestic use and for re-export. Last year imports for re-export reached 194,000 tonnes, she said.
Hoa said the country's annual rubber imports would be stable at 150,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes, part of which would be exported, while domestic consumption could rise up to 85,000 tonnes thanks to demand from Kumho Tire Co Ltd.