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Vietnam’s seafood industry is posting strong results in both production and export value, supported by a strategic shift toward offshore farming and deeper processing. In 2025, total seafood production reached nearly 10 million tons, while export turnover was around 11.3 billion USD, placing Vietnam fourth globally in production and third in export value. The growth momentum continued into 2026, with Q1 harvested production at 2.184 million tons, up 3.2% year-on-year from the same period in 2025. Fish accounted for 1.6219 million tons (up 2.8%), while shrimp reached 229.8 thousand tons (up 6.2%).
Export performance also strengthened. In Q1 2026, seafood export value reached 2.64 billion USD, up nearly 8% year-on-year. Key product groups remain central to Vietnam’s export structure, with shrimp leading at about 4.6 billion USD per year, reinforcing Vietnam’s competitive position in international markets. Pangasius (tra fish) contributes around 2 billion USD per year, helping sustain Vietnam’s role in freshwater seafood exports. Offshore fishing is estimated to generate 3.5–3.7 billion USD annually.
Offshore aquaculture is being positioned as a major development field and a potential new growth driver for the sector in the near future. Beyond export earnings, the industry supports livelihoods for more than 4 million workers and contributes to the maritime economy, while also supporting national sovereignty over the seas.
Looking ahead, the sector aims to reach 9.8 million tons of production by 2030 and 14–16 billion USD in export value. With offshore fishing expected to be reduced, the industry’s direction is to expand offshore farming into a large-scale sector. By 2045, seafood is expected to remain a leading economic sector, helping place Vietnam among the world’s top three nations for deep seafood processing.
Despite strong performance, Vietnam’s seafood sector faces several challenges that need coordinated solutions for sustainable development.
Science and technology are described as a key driver of the sector’s development. From 2021–2025, the fisheries and control sectors implemented 113 science and technology tasks, of which 60 have been completed, delivering practical results for production.
Research and breeding efforts helped secure over 80% of the supply of key breeding stock, with more than 95% meeting clean-bred standards. Farming processes, biological additives, environmental treatment, disease control, harvesting, and preservation have been widely applied, covering about 90% of area and output and contributing to stable growth of 4–5% per year. Science and technology is highlighted as especially important for pangasius.
After more than 25 years of development, the pangasius industry has formed a relatively complete production chain, ranging from breeding stock, feed, and nutrition to farming processes, biosafety, vaccines, harvesting, processing, and export, including value-added products.
While current research has delivered technical improvements—such as increasing survival rates, improving early-stage feed, and optimizing farming processes—the sector is said to need a shift toward value-chain, interdisciplinary, and cross-sector research rather than isolated technical solutions.
In offshore farming, Vietnam’s current techniques and production models mainly focus on two species: cá chim and cá nhụ. These species are described as promising, but further refinement of technical procedures is needed to improve efficiency and enable stable, large-scale production for export.
Given their high economic value and broad demand—particularly in markets such as China, Taiwan, and Singapore—cá chim and cá nhụ are expected to become core products and support the move toward industrial, sustainable offshore farming.
Promising areas such as seaweed are also noted as underutilized in Vietnam due to raw material limitations. New cultured species such as cá chim vây vàng and cá cam are still in early stages, but are viewed as having strong potential due to demand from markets including Japan and China.
For the coming period, science, technology, and innovation are expected to focus on researching and developing core breeding stocks with disease resistance, rapid growth, and good adaptability. At the same time, high technology, biotechnology, and digital technology are to be promoted across the production chain to gradually form smart aquaculture models.
The sector is also moving toward a circular economy and green economy model, aiming to support environmental protection, more efficient resource use, and higher added value for products. On mechanisms, the industry is expected to promote genuine autonomy in science and technology by delegating authority alongside responsibility, controlling by output efficiency, and enabling commercialization of research results.
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