HANOI, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam exported nearly 1.6 million tons of rubber worth over 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 14.5 percent in volume but down 6.1 percent year-on-year in value, the Vietnam Rubber Association said on Tuesday.
Last month alone, the country exported 190,000 tons of rubber valued at 230 million U.S. dollars, mostly to China, India and Malaysia, up 12.7 percent in volume but down 5.6 percent in value against the same period last year.
Last year, Vietnam imported 617,000 tons of rubber totaling over 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, mainly from South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Cambodia, posting respective year-on-year increases of 10.9 percent and 2.5 percent.
By the end of 2018, the country had 965,400 hectares of rubber trees, down 0.4 percent against late 2017, according to its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
