Ha Noi (VNA) – Viet Nam ’s Central Highlands has set a target to put 240,000 ha of land under rubber trees in 2015, with 100,000 ha being in Gia Lai province. However, only 10,000 ha of rubber trees have been planted over the past two years.
The Central Highlands, which has been defined as one of the country’s two key rubber growing areas together with the southeastern region, now houses around 113,000 ha out of the nation’s total 500,000 ha of rubber.
“Drastic measures on land should be taken,” said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat at a conference to speed up the rubber programme held in Gia Lai province last weekend. He urged for the acceleration of land allocation for the programmes and the development of larger projects to be submitted to the National Assembly at its August session.
He also suggested Central Highlands provinces to closely coordinate with local businesses to encourage farmers to grow rubber trees.
The price of Viet Nam ’s export rubber is forecast to continue soaring due to the world’s increasing demand for the staple, which is now sold at 41 million VND per tonne, the highest level so far.
The country’s rubber export turnover is expected to reach 1.5 billion USD this year. In January alone, the figure was 149 million USD, representing a year-on-year increase of 39 percent.
Rubber is one of Viet Nam ’s 10 key export staples that annually fetch 1 billion USD or more. The country’s rubber products have found good niche in some 40 countries and territories worldwide.-Enditem
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