Fisheries Country Profile: Viet Nam 2025

2025 Information Updated

The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam is located on the eastern edge of the Indochinese Peninsula. It shares land borders with China to the north, Lao PDR and Cambodia to the west, and maritime borders with Indonesia. The South China Sea borders the country to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest of Viet Nam, which shows a long, narrow S-shaped country stretching about 1,650 km from north to south. The coastline is approximately 3,260 km long, excluding islands.

In 2023, Viet Nam had an approximate population of 101 million. Viet Nam is the third most populous country in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia and Philippines, and the 16^th most populous country globally. Nearly two-thirds of the population resides in rural areas, and more than one-quarter of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (GSO, 2024).

Viet Nam has an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covering approximately 1 million km², three times the size of its land area of 331,210 km² (Figure 1). Viet Nam is one of the countries with significant potential for fisheries development due to its favorable geographical location, diverse ecosystems, and abundant aquatic resources. Coastal areas with estuaries, lagoons, and mangrove forests provide valuable habitats for aquatic species, supporting capture fisheries and aquaculture. The 28 coastal provinces of Viet Nam are inhabited by over half of the country’s population. Its fisheries sector is one of the most important sources of the country’s economic growth, rural employment, household nutrition, and foreign exchange earnings.

The Vietnamese people predominantly consume fresh or minimally processed products, such as cleaned, cut, or filleted seafood, with popular choices including fish, shrimp, squid, and shellfish sold in traditional markets, supermarkets, and restaurants. Ready-to-eat processed products remain limited but are gradually gaining in popularity.

Fisheries Agency

In 2025, a significant streamlining was witnessed in the administrative organization of Viet Nam. At the central level, the government issued Decree No. 35/2025/ND-CP on 25 February 2025 to regulate the functions, responsibilities, authorities, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. This ministry was formed by merging the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Key areas within the fisheries sector are now managed by the Department of Fisheries and Surveillance. At the local level, the Fisheries Sub-department, under the Department of Agriculture and Environment, assists the Director in advising the Provincial People’s Committee on fisheries and aquaculture management and law enforcement.

As outlined in the Viet Nam Fisheries Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045 under Decision No. 339/QD-TTG dated March 11, 2021, Viet Nam is committed to a sustainable fisheries approach, aiming to reduce capture fisheries and promote sustainable aquaculture. First, reduce fisheries exploitation by strictly managing catch volumes, reducing fishing intensity in coastal waters, and strengthening the protection of aquatic resources. Second, develop sustainable aquaculture promoting industrial marine farming, developing high-tech aquaculture systems, minimizing environmental impact, and conserving marine ecosystems.

Fishing Areas

Viet Nam has a coastline of 3,260 km. The country’s four main fishing areas include the Gulf of Tonkin (shared with China), Central area, Southeastern area, and Southwestern area (part of the Gulf of Thailand, shared with Cambodia and Thailand) (Son & Thuoc, 2003). Furthermore, the fishing zones are divided into inshore, coastal, and offshore zones. The inshore zone includes rivers, lagoons, and coastal waters up to four nautical miles from the coast.

The marine capture fisheries are regulated according to boat engine power and location of the fishing activity. Catches are highest in Central and Southeast Viet Nam. The northern region is most suitable for bottom trawl fisheries, while the central region, with a very narrow area for trawls, is suitable for pelagic fisheries using purse seines, long lines, and gillnets. The southeast and southwest regions are similar to those of the northern region; thus, they are also suitable for bottom trawl fisheries that exploit pelagic and demersal fishes (Nguyen et al., 2013).

For inland capture fisheries, the Mekong River delta provides over 75 % of the total marine landings, and therefore, most of the fishing industry is concentrated in the southern provinces, from Khanh Hoa to Ca Mau, as shown in Figure 1.

Fisheries Subsectors

• Capture

Capture fisheries in Viet Nam are categorized into small-scale and large-scale or industrial. Small-scale capture fisheries are defined as those that use non-powered boats or motorized boats with engines of less than 90 HP. Typically, small-scale fishing operations are labor-intensive and focused on nearshore waters. Common small-scale fishing gear includes beach seines, gillnets, lift nets, push nets, trawls, cast nets, traps, hooks, lines, set nets, and trammel nets. Meanwhile, large-scale or industrial fishing enterprises include those operated by private companies, joint ventures, and state-owned enterprises (Son and Thuoc, 2003).

Viet Nam has four regions with the highest total fishery production from capture fisheries, namely: North Central Coast, Central Coastal region, Mekong Delta, Southeast region, as well as the Red River Delta. There has been an increase in effective fishing methods, such as purse seine nets, rod fishing, and offshore gillnets, while reducing methods that negatively impact resources, such as trawl nets, beach seine nets, lift nets, and cast nets. The number of high-capacity fishing vessels has rapidly increased due to the government’s encouraging and supportive policies; localities have also issued mechanisms and policies to promote offshore fishing and assist fishers in building and upgrading their vessels according to regulations (GSO, 2024).

Production from capture fisheries has shown remarkable growth, rising from 3.264 million tons in 2016 to over 3.8 million tons in 2023, marking a growth rate of 16.4% (GSO, 2024). The extensive network of rivers, lakes, and dams, particularly in the Mekong River Delta and Red River Delta regions, plays a crucial role in providing a diverse range of seafood products for the domestic market. However, overall domestic seafood production in Viet Nam remains significantly lower than aquaculture and marine exploitation.

• Aquaculture

Aquaculture production systems in Viet Nam are dominated by farms cultivating fish and other aquatic species in fresh and brackish water. Key aquaculture species include pangasius (catfish), prawns and shrimp (especially giant tiger prawn and white leg shrimp), and, to a lesser extent, tilapia.

Viet Nam is among the world’s leading aquaculture-producing countries, particularly notable for shrimp, tilapia, and shellfish. Key production regions include the Mekong River Delta, South Central Coast, and Red River Delta. Aquaculture has robustly developed nationwide, including in the Central Highlands and northern mountainous provinces, encompassing all three types of water environments. The Northern region is characterized by freshwater fishponds, rice-cum-fish, and marine cage aquaculture. The Central region focuses on the intensive culture of giant tiger prawn and marine cage aquaculture of finfish and lobster. The Southern part of the country exhibits the most diversity in aquaculture. Farming activities in this region encompass pond, fence, and cage aquaculture of pangasius (catfish), farming of several indigenous species such as snakehead fish, climbing perch, and giant river prawn, as well as various intensification levels of shrimp aquaculture and integrated aquaculture like rice-cum-fish, rice-cum-prawn, and mangrove-cum-fish. The Mekong Delta stands as the hub of aquaculture production in Viet Nam, contributing around 70 percent of the nation’s total aquaculture output. Pangasius and shrimp are the primary species farmed in the area and represent major seafood export products for Viet Nam.

Fishery Statistics

Fisheries Production

The development of fisheries leads to an increase in fisheries production. Figure 2 shows that the total fisheries production increased steadily from 6.9 million t in 2016 to 9.2 million t in 2023, an increase of 36 % over eight years.

The production of capture fisheries had a remarkable increase year by year, from 3.3 million t in 2016 to 3.8 million t in 2023, an increase of 16.4 %. The average capture production was 3.7 million t, of which marine capture accounted for 94 % of the total capture production, as shown in Figure 3. But there was a slight decline in starting from 2022, consistent with the sustainable development strategy of fisheries to reduce the pressure to explore natural resources.

The main species was tuna-like species (nei), which has witnessed an upward trend year by year. In contrast, bigeye tuna had a decrease in production from 8,173 t in 2020 to 4,386 t in 2023, as shown in Figure 4.

The aquaculture production has grown remarkably due to the application of productive aquaculture models. As illustrated in Figure 5, the total aquaculture production from 2016 to 2023 reached 36.8 million t, with 2023 peaking at over 5.5 million t, an increase of approximately 52 % compared to 2016. Despite only accounting for a small percentage of the total aquaculture production annually, marine aquaculture has been experiencing a growth trend in 2016–2023. The marine aquaculture production reached 0.4 million t in 2023, an increase of 11 % compared to the same period in 2022 and nearly 53 % compared to 2016.

Fish and shrimp are the two main species prioritized in Viet Nam for aquaculture development. Consequently, the annual production of both commodities is comparatively high, with fish being more popular for both domestic consumption and export than shrimp. Currently, pangasius is the most commonly farmed species. There is a notable shift in production structure, moving from fish farming to shrimp farming. Shrimp production surged from over 900,687 t in 2019 to 1.2 million t in 2023, marking an increase of nearly 31 % over five years, as illustrated in Figure 6. The farming techniques for brackish water shrimp are gradually adopting new technologies, focusing on large-scale industrial and semi-industrial operations.

Fish Trade

The positive growth in capture fisheries and aquaculture has led to impressive growth in seafood exports. Seafood exports peaked in 2022, with revenue surpassing USD 10 billion. Figure 7 shows that the value of seafood imports only accounts for about a quarter of the value of seafood exports, indicating that the trade balance in the fisheries sector is very favorable.

The primary export markets for Viet Nam in 2023 include the United States, Japan, China, EU, and South Korea. These markets accounted for 63 % of the industry’s total value, with exports reaching USD 5.65 billion in 2023. Table 1 shows that the United States market led with USD 1.56 billion, followed closely by Japan at USD 1.51 billion. China and EU markets have values of approximately USD 1.34 billion and USD 715 million, ranking third and fourth, respectively.

Table 1. Main countries of destination of seafood exported by Viet Nam in 2023 by value (USD 1,000), 2023 (VASEP, 2024)

Ms. Dang Thi Thuy Quynh
Fishery Statistical Officer
Fisheries Data Division, Fisheries Information Center
Department of Fisheries and Surveillance (DFis)
Email: Dangthuyquynh21990@gmail.com