"In Cambodia, our land became their rubber plantation", 8 December 2025

Viet Nam Rubber Group (VRG) is Cambodia’s largest rubber investor. Through complex paths, VRG rubber is supplying certain EV tire markets around the world.

The group supplies major Chinese rubber firms Newfortune and Mainland, as well as tire giants Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone, Kumho and Sumitomo.

One of its biggest customers is Sailun, China’s second-largest domestic tire brand. Sailun has developed EV tires that it claims fit nearly 90% of models on the market and sells them to more than 180 countries.

Many EV makers buy Sailun tires, including Toyota, Chinese brands BYD, Geely, Great Wall and Vietnamese brand VinFast.

According to supply-chain data from a tech firm, Sayari, VRG in Cambodia also supplies Chinese tire maker Jinyu, which runs a factory in Viet Nam near the Cambodian border, producing EV bus tires.

Another key customer of VRG is Hiệp Thành, which supplies Triangle Tyre, China’s eighth-largest tire maker, producing EV tires for export to South and North America.

Sintex, a major partner of VRG, supplies rubber to Taiwan’s Cheng Shin, which produces electric motorcycles and car tires under the Maxxis brand, and later exports them to China and global markets.

R1 International, a subsidiary of Hainan Rubber and supplier to major EV tire manufacturers, including GiGi Tire, Michelin North America, JK Tyre, also sources rubber across Southeast Asia, including via VRG.

Mekong Eye contacted VRG, Sailun, and Hainan Rubber Industry Group via the official emails listed on their websites to request clarification on their rubber traceability systems, but did not receive a response.

VRG recently announced plans to expand by 40,000 hectares in Cambodia, raising concerns of renewed forest loss and land conflict.

“Rubber cultivation has impoverished Indigenous communities, driving many to abandon their villages,” Roy, a Cambodian NGO leader, told Mekong Eye. “It has brought roads and jobs, but benefits are far too small compared with what we’ve lost.”

VRG, HAGL, and Thaco Group — to which HAGL transferred its rubber holdings in Cambodia and Laos — did not respond to Mekong Eye’s interview requests.

“FSC is not engaged in a dialogue with VRG for the implementation of the FSC Remedy Framework. But we’re open to discussions with any organization interested in pursuing a remedy process, including VRG,” FSC International told Mekong Eye via an email, referring to its framework that addresses companies’ past social and environmental harms to the forests.

VinFast, a customer of Sailun, told Mekong Eye it has some traceability mechanisms in place.

In Ratanakiri, families who lost farmland to rubber concessions have cleared new plots in the remaining forest.

“Some girls in my village have had to leave school and marry early after their families lost their livelihoods,” said Sa, a Jarai community member and NGO worker.

With few alternatives, young workers have been drawn to Chinese tire manufacturers, enduring long night shifts and frequent overtime in the heat radiating from production lines. [...].