Lying at the junction of Asia, Africa and Europe, the Middle East serves as a gate for goods to penetrate neighboring regions. It is also a promising new market for Vietnamese seafood.
Despite the negative impact of the European public debt crisis, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reports that Vietnam’s seafood exports have maintained steady growth and are estimated to hit USD 500 million in May to raise the total value in the first five months of this year to USD 2.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.8 percent.
Seafood exports to the Middle East witnessed a dramatic rise in earnings, which helps cover revenue losses in the European market and provides impetus for for the seafood sector to continue growing.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said seafood products shipped to the Middle East have increased in value from USD 192 million in 2009 to USD 225 million in 2010 and USD 274 million in 2011.
Vietnam is boosting seafood exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq and Kuwait, it said.
Of those countries, the UAE is Vietnam's largest customer and a crucial gateway for transporting goods to other Middle Eastern and North African nations.
The UAE is a major crude oil exporter, as well as the second biggest economy in the Muslim world, and ranks 17th among the world's 61 most competitive economies. However, its seafood production can only meet 25 percent of its total demand so it must import the remainider from other countries.
The UAE mainly imports butterfish, anchovies, garrupa, tuna, lobster, mollusks, tra fish and salmon from Vietnam.
Tuna exports to the UAE have increased noticeably in value from USD 522,000 in 2009 to over USD 2 million two years later.
Meanwhile, tuna exports to Sudan reached nearly USD 1.5 million in revenue in the first four months of this year, an enormous year-on-year increase of 655 percent, making it one of the top ten importers of Vietnamese tuna.
This shows positive results from efforts by domestic tuna producers to seek business opportunities for exports to new markets in the Middle East. Seafood exports from Vietnam have many advantages in the region and they are now in ever increasing demand.
Many Middle Eastern countries are heading east for trade and investment, which creates more opportunites for Vietnamese goods to penetrate and increase their shares in those markets.
With average annual economic growth of 6-14 percent, the Middle East region is considered a market with great potential for Vietnam.
Although, there are no strict regulations for product quality and packaging, Vietnamese businesses still face uphill battles because of legal and technical obstacles, as well as the ways of doing business in this market.
They also suffer from a high risk of payment, unstable security, a lack of information, fierce competition due to low import taxes and a poor network of Vietnamese representative offices in the region.
To overcome these problems, the Vietnamese Directorate of Fisheries and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) recently sent a number of trade delegations to survey the Middle Eastern market.
(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.
By the end of Q3/2025, Vietnam’s seafood industry recorded a clear recovery as a series of leading companies reported strong profits — some even achieving the highest results in their history. After several quarters struggling with high costs and weakened demand, the latest business results indicate a robust comeback across the industry.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) On November 12 in Ho Chi Minh City, the Embassy of the Netherlands, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, organized the Vietnam–Netherlands Business Forum under the theme “Shaping the future of sustainable aquaculture in the Mekong Delta.”
VASEP - HIỆP HỘI CHẾ BIẾN VÀ XUẤT KHẨU THỦY SẢN VIỆT NAM
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