HANOI, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam earned some 2.5 billion U.S. dollars from exporting over 1 million tons of rubber in 2013, down 11.7 percent year-on-year in value and up 6.7 percent in volume, said Vietnam's General Statistics Office on Wednesday.

In December alone, the country sold 140,000 tons of rubber to overseas market, pocketing 307 million U.S. dollars, said the office.

China maintained the largest importer of Vietnamese natural rubber in 2013 as importing 400,000 tons worth 280 million U.S. dollars, accounting for about 50 percent of Vietnamese rubber exports.

China was followed by Malaysia in importing 33,000 tons of Vietnamese rubber worth 100 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 21 percent of Vietnam's total rubber exports in 2013, said the office.

Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, Office Manager of Vietnam Rubber Association said on local Stox online newspaper on Wednesday that Vietnam saw great difficulties in market of natural rubber in 2013.

Hoa noted that the increase in production output of other regional natural rubber producers such as Malaysia and Thailand led to oversupply situation in world rubber market, causing a decrease of 17.2 percent year-on-year in Vietnam's rubber export prices.

Hoa seemed pessimistic when talking about Vietnam's rubber export prospect in 2014 as world consumption market doesn't recover as strongly as in the past.

In addition to reinforcing traditional markets, local rubber exporting companies should strive to seek new markets to boost Vietnam's export of rubber in 2014, Hoa proposed.

Source: Xinhua

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