Vietnam’s tilapia exports have surged this year, driven largely by booming U.S. demand, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
In the first eight months of 2025, Vietnam shipped tilapia worth USD 52 million (EUR 44.2 million) to global markets, marking a 359 percent increase from a year earlier. The U.S. accounted for about 70 percent of those sales, VASEP said.
Over the summer, tilapia overtook cod and catfish to become the most consumed whitefish in the U.S., and the market’s imports of frozen tilapia fillets reached USD 262 million (EUR 223 million) over the first seven months of the year, which was up 19 percent year over year.
Vietnam is now the second-largest supplier of frozen fillets to the U.S. after China, reflecting both robust demand and strong growth potential for Vietnamese tilapia, VASEP said.
The strong start to 2025 for Vietnamese tilapia exports builds upon the strong momentum the sector gained last year.
In 2024, the country exported USD 16 million (EUR 13.6 million) of fresh and frozen tilapia products, representing an increase of 222 percent from 2023. Frozen fillets and other processed products saw record growth, with sales reaching USD 14 million (EUR 12 million), skyrocketing 876 percent year over year, VASEP said in March.
Coinciding with this rapid growth, farming area in the country grew 43.8 percent between 2015 and 2024 to nearly 43,000 hectares, producing more than 316,000 metric tons (MT) of the fish nationwide, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
To accommodate sector growth, the country has set up high-quality tilapia breeding facilities in recent years, while research institutes have launched breeding programs and developed genetic resources to support production, laying the groundwork for further industry growth, VASEP said.
The growth has also led to Vietnamese firms that traditionally only farm pangasius – the country’s flagship seafood export – farming and producing tilapia alongside pangasius to broaden their export base, VASEP said.
To that end, on 5 July, Vietnamese fish-farming firm Navico signed a strategic cooperation agreement with AV09 Comercio Exporter, a major Brazilian food importer, to supply both pangasius and tilapia. The company said that the first shipments under the deal are expected to arrive in Brazil later this year, and it hopes the South American market will become a gateway into other Mercosur markets, including Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
