YANGON, Oct 08, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Myanmar exported 35,000 tons of raw rubber in the first six months of the present fiscal year 2009-10 which began in April, getting about 5 million U.S dollars, sources with the Rubber Entrepreneurs Association said on Thursday.

The export started to increase in June when world rubber price as well as domestic's soared.

Myanmar projected an export target of over 80,000 tons during this fiscal year against 2008-09's 40,000 tons.

Myanmar exports rubber mainly to China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia through border trade.

Myanmar's southeastern Mon state stands as the largest rubber producing region in the country, thanks to favorable climate and soil and high rainfall.

Apart from the Mon state, rubber grows well in Tanintharyi division, Kachin, Kayin and Shan states where planting of rubber is being transformed from a small scale to a commercial scale.

Meanwhile, Myanmar planned to expand cultivating over 40,000 hectares of rubber along the country's May Yu mountain range in western Rakhine state as part of its 10-year plan (2008-09 to 2017- 2018) of extending cultivation of the industrial crop.

The country's rubber cultivation revived after 1988 due to permission granted to national entrepreneurs to grow and trade the crop freely.

Rubber, along with jute, cotton, edible crop, stands a main industrial crop in Myanmar.

<<XINHUA NEWS AGENCY -- 10/09/2009>>