China and Southeast Asia are increasingly becoming destinations for seafood exports from multiple markets.
Data collected from trade organizations including the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) and U.K. trade body Seafish show that the Asian market for seafood exports is increasingly growing, with exports of species like salmon increasing double-digit percentages over the past half-decade as economies rebound post-Covid.
That economic rebound, according to economic experts with the NGO World Data Lab and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, has led to the Asia-Pacific region undergoing one of the largest middle-class expansions in history. Economists project the region will contain 3.2 billion of the world’s 5 billion middle-class consumers by 2035, reshaping global consumption.
Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), if they were a single entity, would rank third in middle-class additions by 2035, with an additional 112 million people in the middle class. First and second place are also in Asia, with projections estimating China will add 163 million middle-class consumers and India adding 411 million. World Data Lab recently found that of the 4.5 billion people who currently occupy the middle class, over half are in Asia. It also found that 80 percent of consumers entering the middle-class market for the first time are in Asia, making it by far the fastest growing middle-class demographic.
As economists project big growth in middle-class consumers in Asia, they are also pointing out that shifts in economic status coincide with shifts in what consumers demand, leaving opportunities for companies with goods that appeal to that growing sector.
One of those opportunities appearing in trade data across ASEAN countries, India, and China is increased seafood sales.
China has already undergone a major shift in its seafood consumption patterns, with the country shifting from being a net exporter of seafood to a net importer in 2022.
For decades, China’s seafood exports far outstripped its imports thanks to its role as a major processing hub for fisheries around the world, with much of the seafood it imported getting re-exported. Seafood exports from the country grew from USD 3.6 billion (EUR 3.1 billion) in 2001 to USD 13.2 billion (EUR 11.4 billion) by 2010 before jumping again to USD 18.2 billion (EUR 15.8 billion) in 2012, according to statistics from Rabobank. At that point, the country had a seafood trade surplus of USD 10.8 billion (EUR 9.4 billion).
However, by 2022, the country’s appetite for seafood had grown enough that it was importing more than it exported for the first time, and experts predict that trend will continue.
Countries seeking new seafood export markets are looking to take advantage of this trend.
During a seminar held by the NSC before this year’s Seafood Expo Global, NSC Analyst Eivind Hestvik Brækkan pointed out that China was a growth opportunity for Norway’s salmon exports. That prediction has proven true so far in 2026, as in May, China once again represented a growth market. Seafood exports to China grew 37 percent year over year during the month, continuing a trend that has persisted since 2025 when it became one of the fastest-growing markets for the country’s salmon exports.
Other salmon-producing markets have seen similar trends.
Scottish salmon exports to China increased in 2025, rising 28 percent by value year over year. China first opened its doors to Scottish salmon in 2011 when its national food safety agency greenlit a range of products, and since that time, the country has steadily increased its imports of Scottish salmon. That increase also came in light of relatively flat production, as the country’s salmon production in 2024 and 2025 remained just under 200,000 metric tons.
While the market for Chinese seafood has been growing, it has also become polarized, according to U.K.-based market research firm Euromonitor International. “Premium” species have seen sales growth, but outside of that, most of the growth is in low-end species, with mid-priced seafood sales dropping.
Euromonitor predicted sales in China would skew toward processed products, which it said would outperform other categories in the market.
China is by far the largest consumer of seafood in the world, but the ASEAN market is similarly becoming more important due to its growing middle class.
Seafood companies from multiple regions are already noticing the growth in consumer power in ASEAN nations, which have increasingly become a target for Chinese seafood companies looking for export markets. Multiple companies joined Chinese trade delegations to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in late 2024 to capitalize on growing demand in the country.
The U.S. has also increasingly sent seafood to Indonesia. According to statistics collected by NOAA, the U.S. sent USD 20 million (EUR 17.4 million) worth of seafood to the country in 2023. By 2025, that value had grown to USD 55 million (EUR 47.7 million), marking a 175 percent increase.
Indonesia is the largest ASEAN member country in terms of population, with over 280 million people, but the country’s middle class has fluctuated in recent years as estimates found the middle class in the country shrank in 2022 and 2023.
In contrast to Indonesia’s fluctuating middle class, Vietnam has seen steady growth and has become a destination for seafood imports as the country transitions to a largely middle-income country.
World Data Lab projected in 2021 that Vietnam’s middle class is growing faster than almost anywhere else in the world, with an estimated 23.2 million new members of the demographic group by 2030. A 2024 Household Living Standards Survey by Vietnam’s General Statistics Office found earnings of Vietnamese households continue to grow, and the middle class in urban areas of the country is particularly growing – with its appetite for consumer goods growing with it.
Vietnam has also established strong trade relationships with countries and blocs outside of Asia. The country endorsed a free trade agreement with the E.U. in 2020, and in 2025, Vietnam’s seafood exports reached a record value. At the same time as its exports grew, its imports also grew, and according to Vietnam’s Customs Department, the country’s seafood imports rose to USD 3.38 billion (EUR 2.9 billion) in 2025, an increase of 28.2 percent compared to the prior year.
The U.S. has taken advantage of that increasing demand. In 2023, the U.S. exported USD 58 million (EUR 50 million) worth of seafood to Vietnam. By 2025, that had grown to USD 98 million (EUR 85 million), a nearly 70 percent increase.
Another ASEAN member, the Philippines, is also poised for growth. According to the World Bank, the Philippines can become a predominantly middle-class society by 2040 if it addresses barriers to job creation and strengthens household resilience. The country has already made historic progress, with the poverty rate dropping to 15.5 percent.
According to the World Bank analysis, under current conditions, the middle class will grow to 43 percent by 2040, but with the right reforms, the middle class could be boosted to as high as 55 percent of the country’s population. The Philippines is the second-most populous ASEAN member, with over 115 million people at latest estimates.
"With the right policy mix – one that boosts job creation and productivity while strengthening equity and resilience – the Philippines can all but eliminate poverty by 2040 and firmly put most of its people in the secure middle class,” World Bank Director for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei Zafer Mustafaoğlu said in the report.
Despite that growth in the middle class, the country has remained a relatively small market for seafood compared to nearby Vietnam, importing roughly USD 1 billion (EUR 868 million) a year. Some countries like the U.S. are recognizing the trends, though, and are seeking a larger piece of that market, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture highlighting that there are opportunities in the Philippines market.
Currently, Philippine seafood imports largely comprise products from nearby nations, with China, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea making up over half of its seafood imports.
Thailand, which is also one of the top five most populous ASEAN members, has also seen growth in its seafood imports. The World Bank classified the country as a “middle-income” economy in 2011, and its seafood imports have grown in the last few years – although some of that is to support its growing domestic processing sector.
The country has become an important export destination for Norwegian seafood, according to the NSC, and it has also been importing an increasing amount of U.S. seafood. According to NOAA statistics, U.S. exports of seafood to the country have risen from USD 74 million (EUR 63.7 million) in 2023 to USD 124 million (EUR 107 million) in 2025, representing a 67 percent increase.
By 2035, seven of the 10 ASEAN countries are expected to be predominantly middle class, according to the World Economic Forum. As those consumers continue to emerge, global consumption is expected to reshape around the demand, and as data shows, seafood trade is already being swept up in the shifts.
