Vietnam, the world's fourth biggest natural rubber exporter, shipped abroad 493,000 tons of rubber worth 946 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year, posting respective year-on-year surges of 32.5 percent and 97.1 percent, according to a local trade agency on Wednesday.

China remained Vietnam's biggest rubber export market in the nine-month period with an average of 100 tons of the local product daily exported to the neighbor country in August, according to the Trade Information Center under the Vietnamese Trade Ministry.

Last year, Vietnam sold overseas 574,000 tons of rubber valued at 787 million dollars, mainly to China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States, up 11.9 percent and 31.9 percent, respectively, against 2004.

Vietnam 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