According to a report by Forest Trends last year, Vietnam is the fifth largest rubber growing country in the world, with about 926,000 hectares in 2020, but ranks third in the world in terms of output with an amount of about 1.22 million tons in 2020. 2020.

According to the same report, exports of natural rubber materials such as rubber blocks and concentrated latex, and rubber products such as tires, pharmaceuticals and shoe soles increased from $2.9 billion in 2015 to nearly 5 .5 billion USD 2020. More and more big companies like Nike and Adidas are prioritizing buying rubber from manufacturers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the industry’s gold standard for compliance legal and environmental requirements.

However, Vietnam does not yet have an FSC certified supplier. Forest Trends senior policy analysts said that most of Vietnam’s rubber industry could reach FSC level due to the “messy” supply chain with about 265,000 smallholder households and hundreds of businesses. In addition, raw rubber imported from Cambodia and Laos is mixed with domestic rubber. The main problem is the management of rubber plantations in Vietnam’s small neighbor, where the sector is tied to conflicts over land and logging. According to experts and industry insiders, the lack of transparency could undermine Vietnam’s rubber industry, and global importers increasingly need materials that meet stringent standards.