The standards help farmers achieve stability in production and quality and sell and export their fish more easily, as well as significantly slash costs because fish contract fewer diseases.
Since 2000, the pangasius farming sector has boosted output 36-fold to 1.35 million tones, increased exports of finished products by nearly 40 times to 660,000 tonnes and ramped up export turnover by more than 45 times to USD 1.86 billion. Exports are now shipped to 130 countries worldwide.
Pham Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Department of Fisheries, said consumers in many markets now attach importance to certification such as GlobalGAP in Western Europe and the US and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in Northern Europe, VNS reports.
The certificates cover environmental protection, food hygiene and safety, social responsibility and product origin.
"VietGAP certificate includes all of these, and will help exporters upgrade to other certificates easily," Tuan said.
Further, the growing global emphasis on food safety and origin of products mean that fisheries products that meet these requirements would be able to enter international markets more easily, she highlighted.
"The application of VietGAP standards will be essential for the aquaculture industry to make products that meet the world market's requirements. But it is true that many agricultural producers including pangasius farmers are reluctant to adopt safe production methods including VietGAP because they think it is expensive and make them uncompetitive," he added.
In response, the prime minister signed a decision earlier this year offering incentives to farmers and businesses for adopting safe production methods and generating high-quality products. The incentives include full funding for baseline surveys, topographical surveys and analyses of soil, water and air samples to identify areas for concentrated production, plus training and financial support for the adoption of VietGAP standards.
The Directorate of Fisheries of Vietnam last year said it would support and provide free services for VietGAP certification, so pangasius farmers would pay the lower certification fee when registering for Good Agriculture Practices (GlobalGAP), ASC or SQF 1000 certification.
MARD has also set ambitious targets for achieving VietGAP certification: 30 per cent of all aquaculture establishments will achieve it by 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020.
"The cost of raising pangasius to VietGAP standards is 20-25 per cent more when compared with traditional methods, but the benefits this safe production method can bring are much more, so many local farmers decide to adopt it," said Nguyen Van Tam of the Tra Vinh Agriculture Extension Centre.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States (1995–2025). In parallel with the nation's progress in international economic integration, bilateral seafood trade has followed a remarkably impressive growth trajectory, expanding from an initial scale of just tens of millions of US dollars to nearly $2 billion annually. This growth has positioned the United States as Vietnam’s largest seafood export market for many consecutive years.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) On December 12, 2025, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Processing and Export (VASEP) issued document 231/CV-VASEP regarding strengthening measures to combat IUU fishing and working with the Government to lift the EC's IUU yellow card warning.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Tilapia is easy to farm and provides high economic and nutritional value, making it a sought-after export commodity in many countries.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Vietnam’s seafood exports in the first 10 months of 2025 recorded significant progress, reaching more than USD 9.5 billion, up 15% year-on-year. This result reflects the sector’s persistent efforts amid a highly volatile market, especially policy shocks from the US Although signs of slowdown emerged in the third quarter due to countervailing taxes, key product groups still maintained strong momentum and created a foundation for full-year exports to reach USD 11 billion.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Vietnam’s agreement with the United States on a framework for reciprocal, fair, and balanced trade—reached during the 2025 ASEAN Summit in Malaysia—has generated strong optimism for Vietnamese exports, including tuna. Numerous positive points in the joint statement have raised high expectations for Vietnamese export goods, but turning these expectations into tangible benefits remains a long and challenging journey.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) At the conference on “Linking the Production and Consumption Chain of Ca Mau Crab 2025,” Vice Chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial People’s Committee Lê Văn Sử posed a central question: how to shift the province’s crab exports toward official trade channels, instead of relying heavily on small-scale border trade with China as currently practiced.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) The whitefish market in Japan is showing a clear divergence among supplying countries, in which Vietnam continues to affirm its role as a stable and high-potential exporter. Vietnam currently ranks third after the US and Russia in whitefish export value to Japan. Thanks to tariff incentives and the ability to meet Japan’s strict standards, Vietnamese pangasius continues to record a stable and positive growth trend.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) The People's Committee of Ca Mau Province has just issued a plan to expand the super-intensive, low-water-exchange, biosecure white-leg shrimp farming model (RAS-IMTA) for whiteleg shrimp farming to a scale of 1,500 hectares, aiming to develop high-tech, sustainable and environmentally friendly shrimp farming.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Sa Giang Import-Export Joint Stock Company (HNX: SGC) plans to issue over 7.1 million shares to raise nearly 465 Billion VND for Hoan Ngoc M&A Deal.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) According to Rabobank, global tilapia production is forecast to exceed 7 million tons in 2025, driven by a strong recovery in major producing countries including China, Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Among them, Vietnam is emerging as a potential tilapia supplier in the global supply chain, capitalizing on market fluctuations to expand production and exports.
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