Roundup: Vietnam’s rubber exports see sharp decrease
HANOI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — Reports from Vietnam’s rubber association and agricultural ministry says Vietnam’s rubber exports, including those to its most important market of China, are witnessing sharp decrease, largely due to oversupply.
Vietnam saw a year-on-year decrease of 32.3 percent in rubber’ s export revenue in the first seven months of 2014, pocketing 832 million U.S. dollars, said Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
A MARD report showed that the total export volume of the product in the seven-month period went down 10 percent year-on- year to hit 451,000 tons.
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China remained Vietnam’s largest rubber consumer in the first six months; however, Vietnam saw a sharp drop in the market in both export volume and value during the period, said another report on the website of Vietnam Rubber Association (VRA) on Thursday.
Specifically, Vietnam exported about 138,000 tons of rubber to China during January-June period to earn 248 million U.S. dollars, posting a decrease of 23.6 percent in volume and 42.6 percent in value year-on-year, said VRA.
Since 2013, Vietnamese rubber sector has been facing various difficulties due to plunging rubber price, said the association, adding that as of early June, 2014, Vietnam’s rubber price stood at 36-41 million Vietnamese dong (1,706-1,943 U.S. dollars) per ton, 56 percent lower than that of 2011.
This was because world supply exceeds demand, causing rubber inventory to hit record-high in world markets, said VRA.
Moreover, Vietnam’s cultivation areas of the plant have continued to rise, doubling in the past ten years from 450,000 hectares in 2003 to some 955,000 hectares in 2013, said the department of cultivation under MARD.
With 90 percent of the rubber output for exports, Vietnam remains among the top five of the world’s largest natural rubber exporters while rubber productivity of the country ranks the second worldwide, state-run radio VOV quoted Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) as saying on Wednesday .
Statistics from the Rubber Research Institute of Vietnam showed that in 1990s, Vietnam’s average rubber productivity was 700-800 kg per hectare. The figure now reaches 1,720 kg per hectare, the same as that of Thailand and following that of India.
However, despite significant increases in rubber cultivation areas and productivity, “value brought from Vietnamese rubber does not commensurate with potentials. This is due to less developed processing technology and lack of supporting industries that use rubber products,” assessed the MoIT.
Ngo Quang My, a local expert said on VOV on Wednesday that Vietnamese rubber sector should focus on increasing productivity, upgrading processing technology, seeking ways to produce types of rubber suitable for premium products, as well as improving “brand” of Vietnamese rubber which has not been worked well recently.
In order to boost rubber exports, many experts suggested improving efficiency of natural rubber and developing domestic rubber processing industry, reported VOV.
– Xinhua
