Entering 2026, Vietnam’s seafood industry is facing a period of both high expectations and mounting pressures. Following the positive recovery in 2025, production and export activities in Q1/2026 demonstrated the strong adaptability of Vietnam’s seafood business community amid continued global trade volatility, intensifying international competition, and increasingly stringent compliance requirements in import markets.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) On the morning of October 17, 2025, in Hai Phong City, the Directorate of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Surveillance in collaboration with the Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Environment hosted the 2025 Tilapia Production and Consumption Development Forum. The event gathered representatives from management agencies, experts, scientists and enterprises to discuss solutions for boosting production, enhancing value and expanding consumption markets for this “promising candidate” in Vietnam’s sustainable export strategy.

(seafood.vasep.com) In the first half of 2025, Vietnam’s seafood exports to the United States reached 905 million USD, a 17.5% increase compared to the same period in 2024. This positive growth was primarily driven by a surge in orders in May, as businesses from both countries rushed to finalize transactions before the U.S. implemented countervailing tariffs starting July 9, 2025 - a tariff deadline announced by the U.S. government back in April. However, this short-term acceleration also highlights the increasingly unstable and risky trade landscape, heavily impacted by the new tariff policies under President Donald Trump’s administration.