Vietnam’s rubber production faced many difficulties in 2013, but southern province of Binh Duong still reached encouraging results, the Binh Duong online newspaper reported, adding that the sector promises well in 2014.

Currently, Binh Duong has more than 130,000 hectares of rubber trees, including more than 80,000 hectares from small plantations.

There are two big rubber companies, namely Dau Tieng Rubber One-Member Co.Ltd. and Phuoc Hoa Rubber Joint Stock Company (JSC). The two companies have over time gone along with farmers at the local small rubber plantations, especially in the task of rubber latex purchasing.

Their exports will support the development of small rubber plantations a lot, contributing to ensuring an income source for the local rubber growers.

In 2013, Binh Duong’s rubber latex export reached more than 270,000 tonnes, a twofold increase in comparison to 2012.

The price of rubber latex saw a continuous fall, due to the natural rubber area on increase.

There was an increase in the rubber export, but a reduction in export value, due to the selling price lower than previous years.

One of important elements affecting Vietnam’s export rubber price was that Vietnam’s export rubber industry mainly depends on the Chinese market. It is known that Vietnam’s rubber exports to China account for 45 percent of the total exports.

Thanks to sound policies, Phuoc Hoa Rubber JSC and Dau Tieng Rubber last year maintained their exports at a high level, thereby fulfilling the set targets. Phuoc Hoa Rubber JSC secured 34 million USD in export turnover. This was an impressive figure in the context that the Vietnamese rubber industry isfacing difficulties.

Nguyen Van Tan, General Director of Phuoc Hoa Rubber JSC, said that despite difficulties, the JSC has still maintained export contracts with partners in the world. According to him, the JSC will further maintain and improve its exports in 2014 by trying to meet all requirements from partners; maintain the quality of latex products; listen to partners’ ideas, make coherence with partners; maintain old partners and seek new ones.

Dau Tieng Rubber last year maintained its exports at a high level with a selling price higher than those of other units. Particularly, the company exported more than 29,000 tonnes of latex to main markets, including Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

For the 2014 plan, the company’s exports will reach 27,000 tonnes. Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy General Director of the company, said that it overcame difficulties in 2013 thanks to its good export tradition. The company also took measures in production and business, including improving its quality control system. In 2014, it will further maintain its traditional partners abroad and take measures to enhance the quality of latex products at partners’ demand.

It is predicted that the price of rubber latex will be higher than 2013. The Ministry of Finance has also issued a circular cutting the export tax rates on both natural and synthetic rubber exports.

According to the circular, the export tariff on all rubber exports will be fixed at 1 percent. This means that the tax on synthetic rubber exports is being reduced from 5 percent to 1 percent, while that on natural rubber exports will also be 1 percent from 3 percent previously. This is seen as a favourable condition for Binh Duong’s export rubber industry to reap higher results in 2014.-VNA