Such a trend is taking place because the wood processing industry isencountering material shortages while the rubber industry is seekingmore markets due to price reductions.
According tothe General Department of Customs, by the end of April, Vietnamexported 252,416 tonnes of rubber worth about 360.67 million USD.
The figures represented a year-on-year rise of 33.9 percent in volumebut a decline of 3.3 percent in value against the same period last year.
Notably, the average price for export rubber in thefirst four months of this year stood at 1,429 USD per tonne, down up tonearly 28 percent.
In fact, the price of rubber hasstrongly declined in recent years, from about 5,000 USD per tonnes in2011 to over 1,400 USD per tonnes at present.
Businesses, therefore, have to take into account a number of measures toovercome the current difficulties. One of the effective solutions is tofocus on rubber wood processing.
The volume ofrubber wood for processing is increasing, said Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, OfficeManager of the Vietnam Rubber Association, adding that the VietnamRubber Industry Group will exploit 8-9 million cubic metres of timberfrom about 30,000 ha of rubber trees which could not produce latex.
Meanwhile, the wood processing industry has seen strong but unsustainable growth due to a lack of material.
Vietnam imports timber from 60-70 nations around the world andmainly from the US, Laos, Cambodia and the EU, according to ViceChairman cum Secretary General of the Vietnam Wood and Forestry ProductAssociation, Nguyen Ton Quyen.
In that context, thecooperation between the wood and rubber sectors is expected to benefitthe two sides. Many businesses from the two sectors have shown theirgood will to shake hands on such collaboration.
Thisis also seen as an effective solution since Vietnamese-made homedecorations made of rubber wood are popular in the US and Japan.
Normally, a rubber tree could be extracted for latexfor about 18-25 years. After that, businesses will start to exploitrubber wood and conduct recultivation.
Therefore,if it is possible to set up a strong connection between the wood andrubber sectors, the wood processing businesses will have a stable sourceof material while the rubber partners will have a stable source ofrevenue.-VNA