Vietnam has exported over 1,000 tons of rubber via its northern Mong Cai border gate to China since early January, registering month-on-month surge in both volume and value, according to a local trade information center on Wednesday.

The export prices of Vietnamese rubber in January ranged from 1, 600 to 1,800 U.S. dollars per ton, the Trade Information Center under the Trade Ministry said, predicting that they will stay at high level due to increasing demand of Chinese enterprises and traders.

Besides China, the United States, France, Japan and South Korea currently have high demand for Vietnamese rubber. Vietnam's rubber export value in January surged 36.4 percent over in January of last year, mainly due to higher export prices, the center said.

Vietnam supplied 787,000 tons of rubber worth 111.9 million U.S. dollars to the world market last year, posting year-on-year respective rises of 11.9 percent and 31.9 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Vietnam, the world's fourth biggest natural rubber exporter, plans to increase its rubber tree acreage to 700,000 hectares by 2010 from 500,000 hectares in 2005, and build more rubber processing plants in the coming years.

Source: Xinhua