Pride of Vietnam Rubber Industry

 

Starting from a heavily destroyed land of Phu Rieng rubber plantation – the company’s precursor, upon the war against French colonialism, Phu Rieng Rubber Company was founded in 1978 under the cooperation programme with the former Xoviet Union to develop 50,000 hectares of rubber. By 1991, only 18.500 hectares were covered with rubber trees. Mr Nguyen Hong Phu, Phu Rieng Rubber Company’s Director, said despite a lot of difficulties when being allocated this land for rubber tree development, the company has been growing up in strength thanks to the rich basalt soil which is suitable for rubber plants. At present, the company is operating in three districts, including Phuoc Long, Dong Phu and Bu Dang and providing stable jobs for more than 6,500 employees.

 

In line with the development of Phu Rieng Rubber Company, Phuoc Long’s infrastructure has been gradually improved into a well-off district of Binh Phuoc province and raised up the income for laborers. “The growth-up of Phu Rieng Rubber Co., in this neglected but well-off land has contributed to the province’s development and the company’s history is attached to the formation of the local residential area. The formation of farms is followed by the formation of communes and hamlets. At that time, Phu Rieng acted as a farm and was in charge of social development activities in the province”, said Phu.

 

In spite of unfavorable impacts posed by the climate on exploitation activities in the recent years, the company achieves increased productivity year by year. From a modest figure of only more than 800kg per hectare in 1996, the company’s productivity reached more than 2 tonnes per hectares in 2007. The company achieved a productivity of 30,000 tonnes per annum in 2007 and a revenue of VND1,040 billion, 70 percent over 2006. The continuously increased rubber selling price since 2002 gives the company a big encouragement. The company is expected to obtain VND1,500 billion of revenue in 2008. Its products have been exported to 43 countries and territories worldwide and highly evaluated for its quality. Phu Rieng Rubber Company is the third leading members of Vietnam Rubber Group in terms of both planting area and productivity.

 

Phu Rieng Rubber Company is the leading company in re-cultivation and new-cultivation. The rubber planting area is being expanded to more than 100,000 hectares by the company under the Prime Minister’s direction. Cooperation is being conducted between the company and Dak Nong province to plant, preserve and improve 9,000 hectares of poor forest in which about 3,000 shall be covered with rubber trees. The company is planning to develop seven thousand hectares more in 2015, making the total planted area up to 25,500 hectares. Besides, it is launching a Cambodia rubber projects over 10,000 hectares within the cooperation programme between the Governments of Vietnam and Cambodia. 200 hectares was cultivated in 2007 and by September 2008, 1,500 hectares have been covered with rubber trees. Additionally, together with the Vietnam Rubber Group, the company also contributed ten percent of shares in the rubber tree planting programme in Laos.

 

Despite the aforesaid results, Mr Phu showed concerns about some current insufficiency in the rubber industry, especially the thinking that rubber trees planted in Vietnam are only for latex and their economic value have yet been recognised. After the latex exploitation period, most of rubber trees are deemed as valueless and shall be liquidated or auctioned. Phu recommended that rubber latex is the most important part of the tree, followed by its wood which has high economic value. Another problem is that the world considers rubber as forest tree while Vietnam considers it as industrial tree, correspondingly, the rubber industry’s development is slowed down due to the time which must be spent on procedures for converting forest land into agricultural land.

 

Above all, Phu Rieng Rubber Company’s 30 years of development is really a pride of Vietnam’s rubber industry in general and of Binh Phuoc in particular. Not satisfied with its achievements, the company is diversifying its business lines. Namely, it is launching the investment in cow and ostrich raising. Phu said this diversification policy is for the purpose of terminating the rubber monoculture, raising up the economic efficiency, creating more jobs, effectively exploiting the human resource, equipment and land. Phu Rieng is striving for the target of becoming a multi-business line and multi-ownership Corporate which can afford average income of US$1,000/month for employees in 2015.