EU accounts for about 7.4% of Vietnam's total rubber export turnover
According to statistics from Vietnam Customs Department, in the first 5 months of 2025, rubber exports reached 550,140 tonnes, worth 1.04 billion USD, down 4.1% in volume, but up 21.7% in value compared to the same period in 2024. In the first 5 months of 2025, average export price of rubber reached 1,905 USD/tonne, up 26.9% compared to the same period in 2024. World rubber prices recovered and remained at a good level, helping Vietnam increase export turnover.
According to Vietnam Rubber Association, Vietnamese rubber industry plays a key role in agricultural exports, with total export turnover of two main groups of products, natural rubber and rubber products, remaining at 7-8 billion USD per year. EU market continues to play a strategic role, accounting for about 7.4% of total export turnover of these two products, of which 95% is from the group of high value-added rubber products.
Volume of natural rubber exported to the EU market is small, accounting for an average of 3-4% of total volume of natural rubber exported from Vietnam to all markets. Although EU is not yet Vietnam's most important market for natural rubber, the export volume to this market will have good growth in 2024 while the total export volume to the remaining markets will decrease slightly.
This reflects market shift trend of Vietnam in context of adapting to new requirements such as EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and also affirms increasingly clear role of the EU in the sustainable export value chain of the Vietnamese rubber industry.
For rubber products, EU is a strategic market for Vietnam, with export turnover of this group of products from the EU reaching about 450 - 470 million USD per year, accounting for 9-10% of total export turnover of this group of products to all markets.
Main products exported to the EU include tires, medical gloves and technical rubber components, of which the turnover from tires accounts for more than 70% of the total export turnover of rubber products to the EU.
Policy support needed
The European Union (EU) will issue the EUDR regulation in 2023 and it will come into effect in early 2026. Seven agricultural and forestry products, including rubber, imported into the EU must comply with all regulations of the producing country, from production to export, and ensure that the production process does not damage forest resources.
According to Vietnam Rubber Association, current supply chain of the Vietnamese rubber industry is relatively complex, with 63% of raw rubber originating from smallholders and the remaining 37% from large-scale plantations. These figures do not include imported supplies, which are equivalent to domestic supplies.
Therefore, compliance with EUDR needs to be implemented synchronously from the beginning of chain, where smallholders and purchasing agents play a key role in providing information for traceability and ensuring legality of input materials.
However, ability of enterprises in the industry to meet EUDR varies greatly, depending on supply chain situation, including input materials, chain operation and management capacity, and enterprise resources.
FDI enterprises and state-owned enterprises have an advantage in traceability, thanks to simple supply sources and resources to invest in traceability systems. Meanwhile, private enterprises face more difficulties due to complex supply chains, mainly from smallholders, and due to limited investment resources.
At the beginning of the chain, smallholders play an important role, being main source of raw materials for the industry. However, these households will face the most obstacles in meeting EUDR because their activities are still heavily habitual and informal. In addition, households still do not have access to information on legal and sustainable requirements. These factors do not allow for the implementation of traceability activities.
Speaking to reporters from Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. To Xuan Phuc, a policy analyst at Forest Trends, said that in general, the industry’s current supply chains have not yet met the EUDR. The biggest barriers currently include lack of digital maps of growing areas, legal records of land, informality of transactions in the chain, especially between farmers and agents and limited technological capacity.
According to Mr. Phuc, the movements of the international market in recent years show that traceability requirements are a mandatory trend in the future, not only in the EU market.
Vietnamese rubber industry needs to be aware of this trend, thereby proposing intervention measures to change current supply chain, both in terms of policies and production and business activities, towards meeting market requirements and trends. This requires the efforts of all parties involved, including management agencies, associations, enterprises and especially smallholders.
To maintain and expand market share in the EU, according to Mr. To Xuan Phuc, this requires special technical and financial support for private enterprises, agents and smallholders. In addition, industry also needs to develop a shared national traceability platform; promote public-private partnerships (PPP) and connect with key export markets such as China, the US and the EU. Implementing these solutions will not only help the rubber industry meet EUDR but also help improve the industry's competitiveness in the international arena.
To improve compliance of Vietnamese rubber enterprises with new regulations from the EU, especially the EUDR, there needs to be different support policies developed appropriately for each group of enterprises. Policies and resources for policy implementation need to be designed according to a roadmap, including short, medium and long-term policies. This will help optimize resources and be consistent with current production and business practices of enterprises and parties participating in the chain.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn