Cambodia has 325,900 hectares of rubber plantations by 2013

Cambodia has 325,900 hectares of rubber plantations as of last year, up 16 percent compared with 280,350 hectares in a year earlier, a report of the Ministry of Agriculture showed Monday. Some 78,444 hectares of them are old enough to be yielded, the report said, adding that the country collected 90,000 tones of rubber resin last year. The ministry predicted that rubber plantations would reach 450, 000 hectares by 2020 and could produce up to 500,000 tones of rubber resin from that year. Rubber trees have been planted in 18 provinces out of the country's 25 cities and provinces, it said. The country has 60 rubber processing factories and handicrafts. Cambodia sees rubber as "white gold." The Southeast Asian nation had exported 74,200 tones of dry rubber in 2013, up 34 percent year-on-year, according to the figures of the Ministry of Commerce, adding that the country earned revenue of 170 million U. S. dollars last year, up 6 percent year-on-year. Mok Kimhong, president of the Cambodian Rubber Association, said Cambodia's dry rubber has been sold to China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and some European countries.