2008 rubber output forecast to rise 8%
14-MAY-2008 Intellasia | Thanhniennews
May 14, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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Vietnam's rubber output may rise 8% this year boosted by higher yields, Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, secretary general of Vietnam Rubber Association, said.
Production may rise to 650,000 metric tonnes from 601,700 tonnes in 2007, Hoa said this week at an industry conference in the southern Indian city of Kochi.
Output may reach as high as 1.2 million tonnes by 2020, she said.
Exports of natural rubber, used mainly in the automotive industry, may climb to 770,000 tonnes this year from 714,000 tonnes a year earlier.
Imports may stay unchanged at 200,000 tonnes, she added.
Natural rubber is produced almost exclusively in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The commodity is Vietnam's largest agricultural export earner after rice.
Vietnam, which is known as the world's fourth biggest rubber exporter after Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, set to rake in US$1.5 billion from rubber exports this year.
The country has set to grow high-yield rubber varieties and apply new farming techniques in an effort to raise average output to 2.5 tonnes per hectare in 2015 and 3 tonnes per hectare in 2020 from the current 1.6 tonnes per hectare.
Vietnam, currently housing around 495,000 hectares of rubber trees, plans to increase the acreage to 700,000 hectares by 2010.
It has also grown hundreds of thousands of hectares in Laos and Cambodia.
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