Central Highlands not to expand rubber area
Sunday, 17:51, 11/06/2017
The Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak, Dang Nong, Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum will focus on raising rubber latex productivity instead of expanding the area of rubber trees.
Since 2016, the provinces have banned the transformation of natural forests into plantations of industrial trees in general as well as rubber in particular.
Statistics show that the region now houses nearly 251,350 ha of rubber trees.
Up to 220 projects turning exhausted forests or forestry land into rubber farms have been implemented in the region. However, such projects have failed to yield good results.
Vietnam is among the three largest rubber exporters in the world, after Thailand and Indonesia.
The General Department of Vietnam Customs reported that since the beginning of this year to the end of April, rubber exports reached 301,500 tonnes in volume, a drop of 2.1% against the same period last year. However, its turnover hit US$607.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 65.4%.
China is the leading importer of Vietnamese rubber, accounting for 63.2% with 190,000 tonnes valued at US$383.7 million, a 12.08% rise in volume and nearly 90% in value over the same period last year.