The seafood sector stands before new opportunities yet remains filled with challenges.

Seafood is a key spearhead economic sector with high "endogenous" characteristics, closely linked with farmer-fisherman livelihoods and maritime-island security. During the first 7 months of 2026, despite a complex global situation, Vietnam's seafood exports were estimated at 6.7 billion USD, up approximately 10.5% compared to the same period. This represents a highly positive figure, affirming the strong competitive capacity of domestic enterprises.

"Bottlenecks" from farming zones to border gates

To realize the 12.5 billion USD goal, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Secretary-General of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), stated that the primary obstacle lies in raw material supply. Regarding aquaculture, production costs remain high due to inadequate control over seed quality, diseases, and input material costs. Regarding marine harvesting, localities remain confused in procedures for issuing food safety certificates to fishing ports, while the existing fishing port system remains insufficient in quantity and weak in quality to satisfy IUU anti-illegal fishing regulations.

Beside that, digitizing procedure processing for documents such as S/C, C/C, PS, or COA remains unsynchronized on a single platform, causing bottlenecks for legal raw material supplies. Particularly, regarding imported raw materials for export processing—a vital supplementary source to maintain global supply standing—enterprises still encounter duplicate procedures, prolonged clearance times, and arising costs.

Concurrently, logistics expenses, particularly ocean freight rates, are becoming a heavy burden.

Since mid-June 2026, shipping rates have risen sharply, with certain routes surging up to 30%. Specifically, freight to the US East Coast increased by approximately 2,000–3,000 USD/container, and to Europe by 800–1,200 USD/container.

"For a commodity sector heavily reliant on reefer containers like seafood, these costs directly erode profit margins and reduce price competitiveness relative to rivals with greater geographical advantages. We are relying excessively on foreign shipping lines," Mr. Nam emphasized.

Pressures from key markets also represent a major concern for seafood enterprises. International markets, particularly the US and EU, are setting increasingly strict technical barriers.

Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam observed: "Every market poses a distinct equation. For the EU, top priority remains removing the IUU 'yellow card' and supporting enterprises to verify non-violating shipments. For South Korea, we are petitioning to remove the 15,000 tons/year quota on Vietnamese shrimp to fully capitalize on free trade agreements."

Separately for the United States, trade defense risks are escalating rapidly. The shrimp sector faces anti-dumping reviews (POR20, POR21) and anti-subsidy reviews (POR1) with substantial preliminary tariff rates. More concerningly, as of late July 2026, Vietnamese goods incur additional duties under Section 301 relating to forced labor at a 12.5% rate, alongside risks of intellectual property investigations and draft bills imposing quotas on shrimp and catfish. If these measures are deployed simultaneously, Vietnam's seafood competitive advantages in the US will shrink markedly.

Unlocking financial and labor resources

According to VASEP's representative, beside external factors, enterprises' internal capital and labor capacities currently face numerous obstacles. Mr. Nam analyzed: "When exports increase, capital demand for farming zones and raw material procurement increases accordingly. However, many enterprises still encounter difficulties regarding credit limits and bank evaluation methodologies, which remain heavily reliant on collateral assets rather than value-chain cash flows."

Regarding labor, despite accelerating automation and robotics utilization, the seafood processing sector's intrinsic nature remains heavily reliant on general labor. Currently, many factories face severe labor shortages, leading to risks of failing to guarantee timelines for signed orders or lacking the confidence to accept new orders.

To resolve the above issues comprehensively, VASEP put forward a synchronized series of solutions:

First, the production needs to concentrate on seed quality control and reducing input material costs, alongside comprehensively digitizing origin traceability workflows.

Second, the market needs to establish an Industry Export Fund under Decree No. 240/2026/ND-CP to bolster resources for brand building and trade defense. "Particularly, we recommend establishing an inter-agency mechanism specifically monitoring the US market to respond promptly to new barriers," Mr. Nam stressed.

Third, the logistics need to implement dedicated cost-reduction programs for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, alongside a long-term vision to develop Vietnam's fleet of container and reefer vessels to diminish foreign reliance.

Fourth, The State Bank of Vietnam can consider maintaining and expanding preferential credit packages, prioritizing capital for green transition and deep processing. Concurrently, an Urgent Workforce Guarantee Master Plan is needed to maintain production capacity for labor-intensive sectors like seafood.

Reflecting on the 7-month journey in early 2026, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam evaluated that if major difficulties are resolved promptly in the final 6 months of the year, the sector can maintain a 10–11% growth rate, bringing full-year turnover to approximately 12.3–12.5 billion USD. To achieve this figure, the growth model needs strong innovation, concentrating on cost optimization, value-added elevation, and clearing every bottleneck across the supply chain.

Source: VTV.vn