Tra fish processing company (Illustrative photo: VGP)

In the first 10 months of 2025, Vietnam recorded a breakthrough 9.5 billion USD in seafood exports, up 15% year-on-year in a global market volatile due to new US tariffs. Although there were signs of a slowdown in the third quarter, key products maintained strong momentum toward the export target of 11 billion USD.

In the reviewed period, shrimp played the leading role, with revenues of more than 3.9 billion USD. There was stable growth in whiteleg and black tiger shrimp, and lobster was another standout, earning more than 712 million USD, up 134%.

This boom stemmed from exceptionally high demand in China and Hong Kong (China) for live premium-grade lobster. As of October, exports to those markets exceeded 2 billion USD, up 32%, mostly lobster, marine fish, and live crab. Seafood exports to the US earned 1.66 billion USD.

Nguyen Hang Nga, a representative of the Vietnam Trade Remedies Authority at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said: “We are trying to diversify markets, seek new export destinations to increase revenue. To maintain key markets, we need to strengthen management capacity and systems for tracing raw materials to avoid tax-evasion investigations. To prevent future risks, the key is to make sure we don’t encourage origin fraud or evasion of trade-remedy measures.”

Rising demand for fresh seafood at the end of the year is creating  strong growth opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises. In addition to efforts by the  Government and relevant ministries to have the European Commission’s IUU “yellow card” lifted, Vietnam’s seafood exporters should watch market signals, improve transparency in production data, and standardize traceability procedures toward achieving the export target of 11 billion USD this year.