Brazil’s imports of tilapia fillets from Vietnam recently exceeded the country’s own exports for the first time, unsettling local producers and representative associations, who have expressed concerns about market disruption and health risks.
According to the Brazil Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, more than 1,300 metric tons (MT) of Vietnamese tilapia fillets – roughly equivalent to 4,000 MT of live fish – entered Brazil in February, outstripping Brazilian exports in the same time frame.
The increase in imports stems from a preferential trade agreement facilitated between Brazil and Vietnam in late 2025, opening the Brazilian market up to significant Vietnamese supply.
Since then, Brazil has become the largest market for Vietnamese tilapia, with Vietnamese exports to Brazil reaching USD 8 million (EUR 6.8 million) in January of this year, representing about 56 percent of the country’s tilapia export revenue that month, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP)
Brazil, meanwhile, ranks as the fourth-largest tilapia producer worldwide behind China, Indonesia, and Egypt, with most exports going to the U.S. Historically, Brazil’s tilapia imports have been minimal because domestic supply satisfies most consumption demand in the South American country, but now, the large-scale entry of low-cost Vietnamese fillets has rankled local producers.
Farmers have pointed to a combination of lower production costs in Vietnam and uneven tax and sanitary standards in Brazil as the root of the competitive pressure. The Brazilian Association of Pisciculture (Peixe BR) has called for equalizing sanitary, tax, and environmental regulations to protect national production.
“Over the last 20 years, we've worked to build a national production chain that generates around USD 2.5 billion [EUR 2.1 billion] annually. After building this chain, instead of investing in production in Brazil, [companies] decided to import,” Peixe BR President Francisco Medeiros said. “Those who built the market – the producers and the domestic industry – put all their resources into developing it on their own, without anyone's support, and now they want to reap the rewards.”
Most Brazilian states, except Paraná, do not charge the Brazilian tax on goods circulation (ICMS) on imported fillets but charge it on domestically produced tilapia. Peixe BR reported that imported fillets are sold in Brazil at between BRL 25 and BRL 29 (USD 4.98 and USD 5.77, EUR 4.24 and EUR 4.92) per kilogram – a price Medeiros said is nearly the same as the cost of live fish at Brazilian processing plants.
“That is practically the price of fish when it arrives at the packing factories in Brazil. This creates a significant distortion in competition,” he said.
Besides competition on price, concerns over sanitary risks also persist.
Brazilian farmers and associations have repeatedly expressed concern over the potential introduction of tilapia lake virus (TiLV), which is not present in Brazil, from Vietnamese imports.
In February 2024, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply (MAPA) briefly halted Vietnamese imports over TiLV concerns, though imports resumed later. In December 2025, the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina banned imports from Vietnam due to sanitary issues, but imports are permitted elsewhere.
“The government is not doing its duty on the sanitary issues,” Medeiros said, adding that Peixe BR has been in contact with both the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture and MAPA about this issue.
However, he described the talks as largely “one-sided” and said that the association has requested that the government send officials on a technical mission to Vietnam to carry out an import risk analysis. He said Peixe BR has also reached out to several state officials to push for bans on foreign imports.
Medeiros and local producers worry that imported tilapia could eventually supplant domestic production over time.
“Everyone is worried because if [big companies] want, they can import 100 percent of the production and end local farming,” he said, pointing specifically to Mexico as a market where this has begun to take place.
In 2018, Medeiros said, Mexico was a leading regional producer, just behind Brazil, with 120,000 MT of tilapia fillets. Last year, however, he said this amount dropped to 60,000 MT while imports from China reached 97,000 MT.
“After foreign products entered their market, it destroyed the local industry,” Medeiros said.
Felipe Franco, owner of BTJ Aqua, which operates three tilapia farms and a packing facility in and around the city of São Paulo, said that although Vietnamese fish has not yet directly threatened his business, he remains concerned about how imported fillets might impact the reputation of tilapia among Brazilian consumers.
He said his fear mainly centers around consumers not having the ability to distinguish between domestic and Vietnamese fish in supermarkets.
He explained that in Brazil, injecting substances like sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) into tilapia fillets to retain moisture and add weight is prohibited, but this practice is common in Vietnam. He also said the amount of glazing allowed on fillets is far lower under Brazilian regulations.
“The Vietnamese products are entering the market at much lower prices with all these interventions that increase weight but lower quality,” Franco said. “If consumers buy these products, they’ll feel cheated and won’t know whether it’s domestic or imported. Our greatest fear is that this will harm our reputation and the market we’ve spent decades building.”
