Seafood exports overcome challenges, impressive growth

Proactive in raw material areas, planning concentrated farming areas

As one of the leaders of the Ca Mau seafood industry, recently, Minh Phu Seafood Group Joint Stock Company has continuously received large orders, creating stable jobs for many local workers with an average income of 9.5 million VND/person/month. The Group's revenue in the first 6 months of the year reached over 4,000 billion VND, production output reached 15,000 tons, an increase of 5% compared to the same period; exports reached 12,800 tons, an increase of 13%, with a turnover of 141.5 million USD, an increase of 14% compared to the same period. The group has had many production expansion activities, including putting Minh Phu Khanh An seafood processing plant into operation.

Mr. Phan Van Tam - Deputy General Director of Minh Phu Khanh An - said that after more than 2 months of trial operation, the factory produced more than 1,600 tons of finished products, creating jobs for over 2,700 workers. The goal for 2026 is to achieve 12,000 tons of finished products, equivalent to export turnover of about 130 million USD.

Thanks to impressive output growth, Minh Phu Seafood has made positive contributions to the seafood export results of Ca Mau province with a turnover of 1.111 billion USD, accounting for more than 84% of the province's total export value.

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan - Director of the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Resources Surveillance (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) - said that in the first 6 months of 2026, the international market context has many fluctuations, especially energy market fluctuations. Along with that, climate change and saltwater intrusion affect the farming environment. However, the business community overcomes difficulties, is creative, and with the cooperation of farmers and fishermen, has overcome difficulties and challenges, gradually transforming the thinking of developing the aquaculture economy; maintaining high growth momentum; promoting digital transformation and gradually removing international technical barriers; contributing to the overall growth of the entire agricultural sector and the environment".

Explaining the growth rate of 11.4% compared to the same period, the Director of the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Resources Surveillance said that the results achieved were thanks to the proactiveness of raw material areas, the planning of concentrated farming areas according to sustainable standards (VietGAP, ASC, BAP) has helped stabilize output, even in fluctuating weather conditions at the beginning of the year.

From the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, thanks to good forecasting work, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment as well as the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Resources Surveillance have issued documents directing localities to implement the aquaculture stocking seasonal schedule for 2026. Effective disease prevention and control; directing fishermen to operate safe seafood production and exploitation activities, promptly removing difficulties in reorganizing seafood production. Focusing on implementing the orientation of "reducing exploitation", "increasing farming", diversifying farming objects.

In addition, businesses have flexibly shifted strongly to deep processed goods instead of just exporting raw materials, helping to increase profits and meet consumer tastes, taking advantage of the advantages of free trade agreements as a "lever" to reduce tariffs, helping Vietnamese seafood compete better in price in demanding markets.

Great prospects despite many pressures

According to Ms. Le Hang - Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the results of the first 6 months of the year are a positive foundation for the two-digit growth target of seafood exports in 2026. However, besides market risks, global container freight rates are emerging as a major challenge for seafood exports in the second half of the year, especially when international container freight rates are approaching the highest level in nearly 2 years.

In the second half of the year, the seafood industry needs to maintain momentum in growth markets such as China, ASEAN, Korea, strengthen compliance in the US, EU, Japan, control input costs and logistics well; and increase the proportion of deep processed products with added value. In a market where orders are shorter, prices are more competitive and compliance requirements are higher, cost management capacity, logistics and market risks will determine the sustainability of Vietnam's seafood exports in the remainder of 2026" - Ms. Hang assessed.

Mr. Tran Gia Long - Deputy Director of the Planning - Finance Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) said that the biggest pressure in the last months of the year is price competition in the shrimp industry and slow purchasing power in the United States and the EU. The removal of the IUU "yellow card" by the European Commission is still a major challenge, along with the requirement for traceability, transparency of fishing vessel information and enforcement of laws at sea requiring great resources and changes in production habits. Limitations also come from infrastructure, logistics, transportation and logistics costs are still high, reducing the competitiveness of Vietnamese seafood compared to other countries. In addition, difficulties in management, raw material sources and the impact of climate change also reduce the proactiveness of farmers.

However, Mr. Tran Gia Long believes that seafood exports still have many growth prospects to achieve the export target of more than 12 billion USD thanks to the positive recovery demand in the Chinese market and the increase in demand for white meat fish thanks to reasonable prices.