Brazil’s seafood industry is hopeful after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in February deemed that President Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify his tariff program is illegal, invalidating a huge swath of the nation’s tariffs, including 50 percent rates on Brazil.
The move ended a period of extremely high tariffs on Brazilian fish exports to the U.S. and has allowed exporters to return to pursuing growth strategies in the U.S. market.
The U.S. is the main destination for Brazilian seafood exports, including tilapia, corvina sea bass, red snapper, tuna, and lobster, the latter of which leads in value. During the period in which the U.S. instituted 50 percent tariffs – between August 2025 and February 2026 – Brazil lost competitiveness to other countries not subject to tariffs, resulting in a loss of approximately USD 250 million (EUR 216 million) in seafood exports to the U.S. market, according to the Brazilian Association of Fish Industries (ABIPESCA).
“It was a hard period when the sector stagnated in relation to its growth targets for 2025,” ABIPESCA President Eduardo Lobo said.
Despite the tariff shock, the U.S. remained the top destination for Brazilian fish products in 2025, making up 87 percent of the country’s aquaculture exports.
However, to maintain exports, producers had to lower prices, and buyers also had to reduce margins.
"Both the Brazilian companies and the American buyers were paying the tariff,” President of the Brazilian Fish Farming Association (Peixe BR) Francisco Medeiros said.
Now, with the tariff reduction, Medeiros said producers have resumed contract negotiations at better prices, allowing products to drop in price again for the American consumer.
Even though Trump implemented a sweeping global 10 percent tariff rate in response to the Supreme Court decision, according to Medeiros, Peixe BR has already recorded early signs of recovery, with a 10 percent increase in export volumes of fresh tilapia fillets to the U.S. since the high tariffs were suspended and replaced by the global 10 percent levy.
“The drop in the tariff is extremely positive because it is a linear tariff, meaning that our competitors will have the same tariff,” Medeiros said. “This new scenario opens great business opportunities.”
Medeiros said he believes that the tough times also helped strengthen trust between Brazilian exporters and American buyers.
“We identified which partners in the U.S. we can trust, and the American market also knows which Brazilian partners it can rely on,” he said. “The American market always distrusted Brazilian companies because we had a very heated domestic market. During this period, we showed that we are partners and will honor our contracts.”
Meanwhile, the high tariff period, albeit difficult, compelled the Brazilian sector to develop new strategies. Peixe BR and ABIPESCA reported that during the crisis, Brazilian exporters identified and entered new markets. Exporters organized trade missions, participated in fairs, and worked to open new opportunities in Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, and Canada.
“Every situation like this always has a positive result,” Medeiros said. “A 50 percent tariff is absurd, and one would imagine that no one would export, but we still finished the year with 2 percent more exports – of course at the cost of company profits and not sustainable long term.”
As long as tariffs stay at 10 percent, ABIPESCA reported exports are expected to grow by about 50 percent in 2026, with the goal of reaching over USD 600 million (EUR 519 million) in seafood shipments and position Brazil among the top 10 exporters to the U.S. by 2027, all while maintaining newly gained markets.
Lobo said that in order to do this, Brazil needs to better promote the advantages it has over Asian suppliers to the U.S. market, such as China and Vietnam, due to its product quality and closer geographic location.
"We are able to source the fish that are essential to the American diet, moving away from dependence primarily on suppliers located far away,” he said. “Brazil has the capacity and the geographical, industrial, logistical, and traceable conditions to meet all the needs of the American market for fish that are so important for consumption within that country."
Lobo also said that Brazil has underused potential to scale production and continue growing.
“We have a large productive potential that is stalled,” he said. “To give you an idea, we use only 3 percent of the waterways that could be cultivated in Brazil. So, we can massively expand capture, with tilapia as our flagship.”
