Europe - a Promising Market
Speaking at the seminar "Connecting Supply and Demand: Towards Sustainable Natural Rubber Sources in Vietnam" on December 4, John Heath - Commercial Director, responsible for Natural Rubber at Corrie MacColl Company affirmed: "Currently, in Europe, we distribute about 500 tons of latex and certified rubber per month. Although this output only accounts for a small portion of the market, the potential is still significant."
According to John Heath, the European market is currently focusing on using FSC-certified rubber. Although this attention has not yet translated into actual demand or consumption volume, many consumers have committed to purchasing FSC-certified rubber as soon as the product is certified on the market. John Heath hopes that an additional 16,000 tons of natural rubber (CSTN) will be certified by 2020.
The reason why CSTN importing companies like Corrie MacColl are interested in FSC-certified products is because sustainability has become a prominent theme in European countries for many years. In the CSTN industry, this issue attracts attention from governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and consumers due to negative information regarding land grabbing, exploitation of immigrant labor, child labor, and environmental issues such as deforestation and biodiversity loss.
With pressure from legislation, increasing pressure from civil society organizations, NGOs, consumers, and the media, companies are forced to take full responsibility for their supply chains.
"At VRG, we are implementing reconnecting activities towards FSC forest certification and have worked with the Forest Management Council to jointly develop and implement the Reconnection Roadmap in 2020 - 2021. To meet the requirements of international forest certification, we have surveyed areas capable of forest restoration with native trees and large timber in domestic rubber companies as well as in Cambodia and Laos," shared Huynh Tan Sieu - Head of the VRG Industry Council.
