Cambodia to expand rubber exports

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua): Cambodia will export some 50,000 tonnes of dried rubber to the international market over the next year, a conspicuous rise over the current 30,000 tonnes a year, national media said Tuesday.

"We hope that Cambodia's exports of dried rubber will continue to rise as the new rubber trees which have been planted over the past five years under an expansion project are tapped for resin," Ly Phalla, general director of the General Directorate of Rubber Plantation, was quoted by English-Khmer language newspaper the Mekong Times as saying.

"International market demands for rubber and rising rubber prices will be an incentive for Cambodia to step up rubber exports, " he added. Dried rubber now sells 3,310 U.S. dollars per ton in Cambodia, up from 2,800 U.S. dollars last year.

Cambodia began rubber cultivation in the 1920s during the French colonial era but exports dwindled in the 1970s as the country was ravaged by civil wars.