Seafood Exports Grow Double-Digit: Less Celebration, More Concern — Where Do SMEs Stand?

News Overview

Vietnam’s seafood exports grow double-digit in the first half of 2026, continuing a trend reported across trade data. Sounds encouraging on paper. But after years of handling seafood shipments to the US, EU, and Japan, I know one thing for certain — export revenue growth does not equal profit growth for SMEs. This report is honest about it too: challenges surround the industry from every direction, from raw material sourcing, logistics costs, to technical barriers from importing markets.

What the Numbers Really Mean

Major markets like the US, China, and Japan remain pillars, but each market applies its own filter on Vietnamese seafood. The US is tightening antibiotic residue checks and IUU traceability requirements — IUU stands for Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing, a compliance framework tracking the origin of wild-caught seafood. The EU still holds the IUU yellow card threat over the wild-caught seafood sector, while China keeps shifting quarantine policies unpredictably, so customs clearance can be smooth one week and stuck at the border for weeks the next.

I once witnessed a partner in Ca Mau have an entire shrimp container rejected in the US for exceeding antibiotic residue limits. The damage wasn’t just the shipment value — it was buyer trust, something that takes years to rebuild.

Ho Alva’s Take

Double-digit growth on customs paperwork does not reflect the real health of individual businesses, especially SMEs. Vietnam’s seafood industry is clearly splitting into two groups, and only one of them is actually capturing this growth.

• Large enterprises with standardized farming areas, ASC and BAP certifications, and proper traceability systems — this group genuinely benefits from export growth.
• SMEs still doing subcontracted processing, dependent on intermediary raw materials, lacking international certification — this group faces the highest risk when technical barriers tighten.

I tell my clients one thing constantly: seafood export today is no longer a volume game, it’s a documentation game. US and EU buyers don’t ask how many tons you can produce — they ask what documents prove your origin, process, and chemical residue levels. Without proper documentation, even excellent product quality gets sent back.

Opportunities for SMEs

Real opportunity for SMEs lies in less competitive niches rather than raw exports. Deep processing and value-added products let smaller businesses capture margin that intermediaries usually take.

I once helped a shrimp processing business in Soc Trang pivot toward private label manufacturing for a South Korean retail chain. Profit margins doubled compared to selling raw through intermediaries, because they captured the packaging experience and dedicated branding for that partner.

Online B2B selling through Alibaba is also a channel worth serious consideration, particularly for SMEs who can’t yet afford overseas representative offices. I’ve seen quite a few small seafood businesses in Ben Tre and Kien Giang reach mid-market buyers through this platform instead of fully depending on export middlemen who skim 15-20% of order value.

Risk Warnings

The biggest risk isn’t the market — it’s internal compliance capacity. You can lose an entire shipment over one small detail in your quarantine documentation.

I once saw a partner lose a USD 200,000 contract simply because they were 3 days late providing raw material origin certification — the buyer didn’t wait, they switched suppliers immediately.

Input costs are another headache: feed prices rising, logistics costs fluctuating unpredictably, and USD/VND exchange rates directly impacting export margins. Any business without 6-12 month cash flow forecasting can easily get caught off guard when the market shifts suddenly.

So, as Vietnam’s seafood exports grow double-digit, the real question for SMEs isn’t the headline number — it’s whether you’re still selling raw materials through intermediaries, or already building compliance documentation and your own brand to reach international buyers directly.