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Wednesday, 19 October 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters): Vietnam, the world’s fourth largest natural rubber exporter, has raised its rubber export forecast for this year to 780,000-800,000 tonnes from a prior projection of 770,000 tonnes due to higher output, an industry official said on Monday.
“The output is rising as the planting area has been expanded,” General Secretary Tran Thi Thuy Hoa of the Vietnam Rubber Association said.
She said the forecast for a late ending of the rainy season would not hit latex production because rains at the end of the wet season are normally light.
“It won’t affect output, while on the other hand it is helping rubber trees so the output could rise next year,” Hoa said in an interview.
State forecasters have said the rainy season could end in November in the southern region, or about a month later than usual. November is usually the peak time for rubber latex tapping.
She forecast Vietnam’s rubber output in 2012 could rise 3-5 percent to at least 803,000 tonnes, from 780,0000-800,000 tonnes expected this year.
Last year Vietnam produced 754,500 tonnes of rubber latex and exported 783,000 tonnes. Hoa pointed out that Vietnam imports rubber from other countries for re-export.
It buys from Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.
The country’s export ranking follows Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. It has been expanding rubber plantation in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia.
In November last year the association said it expected natural rubber exports in 2011 to ease slightly to 770,000 tonnes.
The association’s forecast on Vietnam’s annual rubber export for 2011 is lower than a projection of 834,500 tonnes by the Agriculture Ministry.
“The ministry used the data in the first quarter, when export grew strongly, to make its annual forecast, while in the second and the third quarters the export went down slightly,” Hoa said.
Vietnam exported 164,000 tonnes of rubber between January and March, a surge of 33.7 percent from the same period last year, while January-September rubber export totalled 524,700 tonnes, up only 2.4 percent from a year ago, government data showed.
“Export (of rubber) usually picks up in the last months of the year,” Hoa added.
Vietnam’s main rubber export market is China, which bought more than 60 percent of the country’s rubber between January and August of this year. Other key buyers are Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and Germany, the agriculture ministry said.
