Vietnam has become a rubber processing and export hub of Asia. However, the local supply of rubber materials only meets 40% of processing demand, urging for increasing imports of rubber materials to produce high added-value products for export, according to the Vietnam Rubber Association (VRA).

Total rubber cultivation area is estimated at 940,000 ha, producing some 1.3 million tons of rubber latex annually.

In 2023, Vietnam earned $9.4 billion from rubber exports. Of which, deep processing rubber products contributed the highest revenue of $4.4 billion, following by natural rubber with nearly $2.9 billion and rubber wood with $2.2 billion.

Meanwhile, the country imported nearly 1.4 million tons of natural rubber, worth approximately $1.4 billion.

In the first four months of this year, Vietnam exported 499,000 tons of rubber, worth $743 million, while imported $360 million.

General Secretary of the VRA Vo Hoang An said the increase in import of natural rubber is a good sign. Vietnamese enterprises now mainly export deep processing products instead of natural rubber as ten years ago. By then,  turnover from imported natural rubber accounted for 10-15% of the export turnover. A balance between the import and export in terms of value has been reached now, however.