Vietnam's seafood industry aims for 10-15% export growth rate in 2025

In 2024, Vietnam's seafood exports saw a growth of 12%, generating over US$10 billion and positioning it as the world's third-largest seafood exporter following China and Norway. The exports included shrimp, tuna, and pangasius, which experienced significant increases. However, the industry faces challenges such as illegal fishing, climate change, environmental pollution, and market barriers in 2025. Despite these challenges, the US Department of Commerce's ruling on lower tariffs for Vietnamese shrimp and government support through credit packages offer opportunities for growth. The European Union, United States, Japan, China, and the Middle East, especially Israel, are key markets for Vietnamese seafood, requiring compliance with strict sustainability and certification standards.

Vietnam earned more than US$10 billion from seafood export in 2024, representing a year-on-year rise of 12%, making it the third largest seafood exporters after China and Norway. Key export items saw positive growth, including shrimp (US$4 billion, up 16.7%), tuna (nearly US$1 billion, up 17%), and pangasius (US$2 billion, up 9.6%). In 2025, the seafood industry will continue to face new challenges, including addressing the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated yellow card issue, adapting to climate change, environmental pollution, and market barriers, says Nguyen Hoai Nam, VASEP deputy general secretary. However, he believes that the prospects for seafood exports in 2025 are quite positive, reasoning that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) recently issued a final ruling in the countervailing duty investigation on frozen warm-water shrimp imports from Vietnam. The DOC’s ruling indicates lower tariffs for Vietnam compared to its competitors like India and Ecuador, and given the ...