The fact that Vietnamese sashimi tilapia conquers the Japanese market marks a new step forward for seafood, opening up opportunities to elevate value for this commodity sector.

Currently, Vietnam's tilapia farming area reaches around 43,000 ha, with output volume reaching over 420,000 tons. In 2025, export turnover of this commodity item reached over 99 million USD. Within this, the Mekong Delta serves as the region possessing advantages in raw material zones, processing enterprise systems, logistics, and seafood export, demonstrating potential to rapidly expand commercial tilapia production.

Heading toward high-segment markets

Can Tho City possesses two tilapia processing factories. One factory is invested in by Tai Kim Anh Co., Ltd., possessing a processing capacity of 200 tons/day, manufacturing tilapia fillets, whole fish, and multiple value-added products for export. Another factory is invested in by Vietnam Clean Seafood Joint Stock Company (Cleanfood), specializing in processing tilapia fillets for export to Japan to process sashimi and sushi dishes.

Mr. Vo Van Phuc - General Director of Cleanfood stated that previously the enterprise researched a combined shrimp - fish model aiming to maximize farm efficiency. Following around one year of deployment, with multiple difficulties and challenges, the enterprise determined the optimal model as farming tilapia - Izumidai to process into sashimi, exporting primarily to the Japanese market.

According to Mr. Phuc, while multiple other countries have virtually not yet been able to export similar products to Japan, Cleanfood conversely succeeded thanks to boldly investing in infrastructure, farming and processing technologies, guaranteeing quality standards such as: fragrant fish meat, free from microorganisms and antibiotics. Besides, the enterprise also invested in water treatment technology along with "know-how" regarding feed, within which constructing separate fruit tree farms to serve fish farming.

"Currently, demand to supply products to the Japanese market is very massive, and the enterprise lacks sufficient output volume because we have merely developed for one year, but lost up to 6 months to stabilize processes. Every month the enterprise must stock around 200,000-300,000 tilapia fingerlings to satisfy market demand," Mr. Phuc informed.

Explaining opportunities for tilapia in Japan

According to Mr. Vu Cuong, Vietnamese Agricultural and Environmental Counselor to Japan, regarding seafood commodities, Japan does not request the Vietnamese Government to evaluate or grant certifications against each individual exported shipment. Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises merely need to fully satisfy food safety standards and general regulations when importing food into this nation, such as traceability and technical requirements from importers, to be able to bring products into the Japanese market, encompassing tilapia.

He evaluated that the successful export of the first tilapia shipment to Japan reflects positive transformations in the production, processing, and quality control capacities of Vietnamese enterprises. Concurrently, this demonstrates the efficiency of the seafood sector value chain upgrading process under international standards during the past time.

"This success is also linked with the efforts of Vietnam's seafood sector, particularly the role of orientation, standard construction, and enterprise support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in elevating whole-sector capacity, satisfying day by day better the strict requirements from markets carrying high standards such as Japan," he affirmed.

Mr. Vu Cuong further explained that exported tilapia products consumed in raw-eating forms do not constitute unprocessed whole fresh fish. This serves as a product already sliced and frozen under mandatory procedures, aiming to eliminate micro-organism risks prior to bringing out to the market.

According to research by the Vietnamese Agricultural Counselor in Japan, merely in recent years has Japan verified that tilapia satisfies safety requirements for utilization under raw-eating forms. This serves as one of the few freshwater fish species accepted by Japanese people to consume in this manner, thanks to flavor and meat texture fairly similar to sea bream (Tai) - a fish species very popular in Japanese cuisine.

Tilapia utilized for this sashimi is called Izumidai. On the Japanese market, there already exist tilapia products for raw eating imported primarily from China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Source: Bao Nong nghiep va Moi truong