Favorable changes in the world market will strongly prop up Vietnam’s rubber exports next year, said analysts from the Vietnam General Rubber Corporation (Geruco).
The country is expected to export as many as 550,000 tons of rubber next year. Of the volume, local companies plan to supply around 470,000 tons while the remainder will be imported from the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia.
The analysts said promising trends have been seen in almost all Vietnam's major rubber importers, including mainland China, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, the U.S., Belgium and Japan.
China, the largest consumer of Vietnamese rubber, has already readjusted its rubber trading methods, encouraging the Chinese enterprises to import rubber from Vietnam at big volumes, instead of small ones as it had done previously. The move is paving the way for Vietnamese traders to boost rubber exports to the market in 2006.
“Meanwhile, increasing demands for rubber of such huge importers as Russia, where Vietnam accounts for more than 60 per cent of the natural rubber market, the US, Belgium, France and Italy are good signals for the domestic rubber exporters,” said Dinh Van Tien, the Head of Ex-Import Division under the Geruco.
Rubber is one of the most important agricultural commodities of Vietnam after rice and coffee. The country currently has more than 500,000 hectares under rubber cultivation, yielding 550,000 tons annually and up to 90 per cent of which is earmarked for exports.
Despite being listed sixth among the world’s leading rubber producers, Vietnam reportedly makes up for just 7 per cent of the world’s total rubber output, Tien said, adding that Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia are now accounting for more than 80 per cent of the world output.
Vietnam, the fourth largest rubber exporter in the world, after Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, will gain total earnings of US$610 million from rubber exports this year, up 5.4 per cent against that of last year, according to statistics from the Geruco.
B.T
Vietnamese
