Aerial view of large shrimp farms in the coastal region of Giao Thuy, Vietnam.
Photo: Adobe Stock.
The Vietnamese seafood industry closed 2025 with what the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) described as "an impressive export turnover" of nearly USD 11.3 billion, representing a 12.4% increase over 2024.
In VASEP's view, this result is not only a reflection of the recovery in global consumer demand but also demonstrates the flexible adaptability of Vietnamese companies in the face of increasingly strict trade barriers.
Although in its statement VASEP celebrates the results achieved throughout last year, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers highlighted the importance of the last few months of 2025 in this achievement, after witnessing a sharp acceleration.
In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, the value of Vietnam's fishery product exports reached USD 3.103 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 10.3%. Of this figure, December contributed USD 954.5 million, representing an increase of 9.2% compared to the same month of the previous year.
According to VASEP's explanation, this was the period when companies focused on boosting exports to meet holiday demand in Asian markets, especially China and Hong Kong, which saw explosive growth of 22.9% in the last quarter of 2025. The association added that December was also "a sprint month" for exporters to the United States ahead of upcoming restrictions on Vietnamese seafood.
Since January 1, 2026, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) has been in effect, requiring foreign fisheries to demonstrate that their practices to prevent harm to marine mammals are comparable to those used by US fleets, and with it, a ban on imports for species related to 12 Vietnamese fisheries not recognized as equivalent.
Last year, NOAA Fisheries—part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—reviewed around 2,500 fisheries in 135 nations and, in September, issued its comparability determinations for 2,025 fisheries on a fishery-by-fishery basis, denying approval to 240 fisheries from 46 countries.
Likewise, Vietnam is also awaiting the anti-dumping duty results for shrimp POR19, which are expected to be announced at the end of February 2026 and which, together with US tariffs, will determine the future of its exports of this species to the United States.
Precisely, shrimp was the species that led the growth of Vietnam's seafood exports in the fourth quarter of 2025 with USD 1,244.0 million, equivalent to an increase of 16.8%. Other seafood products, such as squid and octopus, with an increase of 20.4%, and crab, which increased by 20.9%, also contributed to this growth.
VASEP's release highlighted that, in contrast, tuna remained a weak spot, with a 10.8% drop in the fourth quarter due to pressure from the aforementioned US MMPA regulations, the IUU yellow card—a formal warning from the European Commission to a non-EU country that isn't doing enough to stop illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing)—and difficulties in sourcing raw materials from capture fisheries.
Regarding 2025, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers also said that it was the year that reaffirmed the position of the country's leading seafood companies. According to VASEP, the top 10 exporters, which include well-known names in the shrimp and pangasius sectors, contributed significantly to the total value of the industry.
The association emphasized that the companies' success stemmed mainly from effective use of free trade agreements (FTAs) and timely market shifts.
Thus, when export to the US market faced difficulties due to reciprocal tariffs imposed from August 2025, Vietnamese companies quickly turned to the CPTPP bloc—i.e., the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership bloc comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the UK, and Vietnam itself—where they earned more than USD 3 billion, and toward China, where they reached a value of USD 2.4 billion.
Likewise, VASEP also noted that the presence of companies such as Phat Loi, An Hai, and Tai Kim Anh among the top 10 exporters last year highlights the strong growth of companies that focus on highly processed products and the Chinese market.
However, it was STAPIMEX which topped the list with exports worth USD 309.8 million, followed by the "shrimp king" Minh Phu, whose two legal entities in Ca Mau and Hau Giang together exceeded USD 542 million. Meanwhile, Vinh Hoan continued to hold the number one position in the pangasius industry with USD 249.0 million.
Despite all these positive figures and the flexible adaptability that yielded such good results for Vietnamese seafood companies in last year's unstable global market, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers also acknowledged that, looking at the fourth quarter results, pressure from technical barriers such as the IUU yellow card and MMPA regulations is "clearly weighing on" capture seafood products.
With the solid foundation achieved in 2025, VASEP believes that Vietnam's seafood industry has sufficient grounds to aspire to sustainable development, even though 2026 is expected to present certain challenges arising from the US market and increasingly stringent green certification requirements.
"Maintaining growth momentum in 2026 will largely depend on the ability of businesses to enhance supply chain transparency and optimize production costs amid unpredictable changes in international trade policies," the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers concluded.