Vietnam's rubber export revenues are expected to exceed the threshold of 1 billion U.S. dollars this year, up from 787 million dollars last year, according to a local trade agency on Thursday.

The anticipated hike is based on bigger export of the product in the first nine months of this year, the Trade Information Center under the Trade Ministry said, noting that the country shipped abroad 493,000 tons of rubber worth 946 million dollars in the nine-month period, posting respective year-on-year surges of 32.5 percent and 97.1 percent.

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.

Vietnam, the world's fourth biggest natural rubber exporter, sold overseas 574,000 tons of rubber, mainly to China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States, in 2005.

Source: Xinhua