According to the Ministry of Finance's trade statistics, surimi products such as kamaboko exported from Japan in January-July 2026 totaled 6,186 tonnes. That is up 9.5% from 5,650 tonnes in the same period a year earlier. The '9% increase' and 'to Vietnam, 2.2-fold' that VASEP conveyed on September 25 as content Minato Shimbun reported citing Ministry of Finance data matched the volume-based figures for statistical item number 1604.20-190.
That said, the absolute volume bound for Vietnam is 21.1 tonnes, worth JPY 36.47 million. Its share of the world total by volume is just 0.34%. Over the same seven months, Japan bought 1,844 tonnes of threadfin bream surimi from Vietnam. If you read this news as someone sourcing marine raw materials from Vietnam, the fact that the raw-material flow is 87 times thicker is more useful at the negotiating table than the story of finished goods beginning to trickle out. Here we line up both the export and import sides using Ministry of Finance figures.
The 6,186 tonnes is finished kamaboko and does not include frozen surimi
What 1604.20-190 refers to is surimi-based products other than fish sausage
Open Chapter 16 of the export statistical commodity schedule and 1604.20 splits into 'fish sausage, kamaboko and other surimi-based products' (-110 for fish sausage, -190 for the rest) and 'other' (-900). The 6,186 tonnes here falls under -190, meaning the 'other' category excluding fish sausage. The schedule lists no product names besides kamaboko, but in practice chikuwa and fried kamaboko types belong here. The VASEP article likewise states explicitly that frozen surimi blocks used as raw material are not included in these statistics.
Mix these up and the sourcing story turns upside down. Frozen surimi is a raw material under Chapter 3 (0304), while surimi-based products are finished goods that fall under Chapter 16. The 6,186 tonnes leaving Japan is not the movement of raw material used by Japanese surimi-product plants, but the volume of products those plants made and sold overseas.
Of the 487 tonnes of fish sausage, 440 tonnes went to Hong Kong
For the same period, 1604.20-110 (fish sausage) was 487 tonnes / JPY 370 million, of which 440 tonnes went to Hong Kong. In the January-July cumulative totals there is no entry for Vietnam in either 2025 or 2026. The only line moving to Vietnam within the surimi-product category is the one on the kamaboko side. Note that under -900 ('other'), shipments to Vietnam came to 38.9 tonnes / JPY 137 million, which is the larger figure. Also, because trade statistics do not record low-value cargo of JPY 200,000 or less, sample shipments and small experimental exports do not appear in the figures from the outset.
In Southeast Asia the standout growth is in Thailand and Vietnam; by volume it is the United States and Hong Kong
The United States at 2,583 tonnes is the largest, and Cambodia jumped 146-fold
| Destination | January-July 2025 | January-July 2026 | Change in volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| World total | 5,650 tonnes / JPY 6.11 billion | 6,186 tonnes / JPY 6.91 billion | +9.5% |
| US | 2,364 tonnes | 2,583 tonnes | +9.3% |
| Hong Kong | 1,242 tonnes | 1,112 tonnes | -10.5% |
| Taiwan | 464 tonnes | 803 tonnes | +73.3% |
| Norway | 150 tonnes | 264 tonnes | +76.1% |
| South Korea | 380 tonnes | 252 tonnes | -33.9% |
| Thailand | 24.7 tonnes | 98.3 tonnes | about 4.0x |
| Vietnam | 9.7 tonnes / JPY 19.93 million | 21.1 tonnes / JPY 36.47 million | about 2.2x |
Volume is under statistical commodity code 1604.20-190; value is on a customs-declaration basis. Compiled and calculated from the commodity-by-country tables of the Ministry of Finance trade statistics.
South Korea and Hong Kong came in below the previous year
South Korea fell 33.9% from 380 to 252 tonnes, and Hong Kong also dropped 10.5% from 1,242 to 1,112 tonnes. The world total's 9.5% rise is the result of growing and shrinking markets moving at the same time. Thailand (about 4.0x, 98.3 tonnes) and Vietnam (about 2.2x, 21.1 tonnes), with their large growth rates, are no more than multiples within a small vessel of under 100 tonnes each. the multiple and you misread the order of magnitude by a digit or two.
By value, the world total rose 13.1% from JPY 6.11 billion to JPY 6.91 billion, outpacing the 9.5% rise in volume. The average unit price rose from JPY 1,081/kg to JPY 1,117/kg. Because '9%' and '13%' swap depending on whether you speak in volume or value, you will want to spell out the units when putting this into internal documents.
The unit price for Vietnam is JPY 1,732/kg, 1.5 times the world average
What kind of cargo carries a unit price more than 50% above the world average
Dividing the 21.1 tonnes / JPY 36.47 million for Vietnam back out gives JPY 1,732/kg. That is 1.55 times the world average of JPY 1,117/kg, and higher than the JPY 1,136/kg for the United States and JPY 1,163/kg for Hong Kong. On the point where the original VASEP text wrote the United States was 'up about 10%', the statistics put it at +9.3%. Because export value is FOB it carries no freight, but cargo involving small portions, individual packaging or refrigeration tends to command a higher unit price. Trade statistics, however, hold neither the packing form nor the buyer. 'It is going into Japanese-affiliated retailers and Japanese restaurants in Vietnam' does not rise above conjecture, so we leave it here without asserting it.
The trend of rising sales of imported marine products within Vietnam itself is premium Canadian seafood up 40% in two years in Vietnam also visible in another figure. The size of 21 tonnes is easier to understand when placed within that current.
Down 16% from JPY 2,062/kg the previous year
For January-July 2025, shipments to Vietnam were 9.7 tonnes / JPY 19.93 million, at a unit price of JPY 2,062/kg. In 2026 the volume became about 2.2 times larger, while the unit price fell 16.0%. As a result the value grew only 1.83-fold. If you write 'more than doubled' without noting whether it is volume or value, the picture changes for the reader.
Full-year results for Vietnam in 2025 were 22.3 tonnes / JPY 43.04 million. In 2026 shipments reached 21.1 tonnes in seven months, putting it on track to exceed the previous year for the full year. But when the base is in the twenties of tonnes, the multiple shifts with nothing more than a change in the shipping timing of a single container.
In the same seven months, Japan bought 1,844 tonnes of surimi from Vietnam
Threadfin bream surimi has become a three-way contest among India, Vietnam and Thailand
The import statistical commodity code 0304.99-993 is for 'threadfin bream (surimi only)', the category into which white-fish surimi from Southeast and South Asia falls. Imports for January-July 2026 totaled 7,798 tonnes / JPY 3.72 billion. By country, India led with 3,098 tonnes, followed by Vietnam at 1,844 tonnes and Thailand at 1,742 tonnes. In the same period a year earlier Thailand led with 3,233 tonnes, so the top ranking has flipped within a year.
| Sources of threadfin bream surimi imports | January-July 2025 | January-July 2026 | Change in volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total imports | 7,482 tonnes / JPY 3.21 billion | 7,798 tonnes / JPY 3.72 billion | +4.2% |
| India | 1,693 tonnes | 3,098 tonnes | +83.0% |
| Vietnam | 1,363 tonnes / JPY 520 million | 1,844 tonnes / JPY 818 million | +35.3% |
| Thailand | 3,233 tonnes | 1,742 tonnes | -46.1% |
| Pakistan | 835 tonnes | 912 tonnes | +9.2% |
| Indonesia | 225 tonnes | 102 tonnes | -54.6% |
Vietnam rose 35.3% from 1,363 to 1,844 tonnes, and by value climbed 57.4% from JPY 520 million to JPY 818 million. The unit price rose 16.3% from JPY 381/kg to JPY 444/kg. Volume can be secured, but Unit price the price rises -- that is the shape the numbers take this year.
Alaska pollock surimi fell 16.5%, and its unit price rose 7.7%
The mainstay raw material, Alaska pollock surimi(0304.94-010), came to 47,676 tonnes / JPY 20.45 billion for January-July. That is down 16.5% from 57,065 tonnes in the same period last year, while the unit price rose 7.7% from JPY 398/kg to JPY 429/kg. The sources are two countries: Russia and the United States.
Overlaying the two gives a picture of threadfin bream surimi roughly flat at up 4.2% and Alaska pollock down 16.5%. As far as these two codes show, within a shrinking total volume of raw material the ranking in the Southeast Asia slot shifted. The tightness of white-fish supply and demand the gap that Vietnamese pangasius opened in Japanese foodservice sourcing points in the same direction as.
Figures for buyers sourcing raw material from Vietnam to grasp before negotiations
Get the commodity code wrong and raw material and finished goods swap places
| Item to confirm | How to pull it, specifically | Points easily confused |
|---|---|---|
| Raw-material surimi | Import: 0304.99-993 (threadfin bream) / 0304.94-010 (Alaska pollock) | The category differs by fish species. Do not lump it all together as 'surimi' |
| Finished surimi-based products | Export: 1604.20-190 / fish sausage is 1604.20-110 | -900 is something else. Summing them together makes the figures fail to add up |
| How to take the period | Specify a single year-month in the commodity-by-country table and read the cumulative column | The cumulative figure is built up from January. Do not mix it with the current-month column |
| The pricing stage | Exports are FOB (free on board); imports are CIF (cost, insurance and freight) | The import unit price of JPY 444/kg includes freight and insurance. It is not the ex-factory price on the Vietnamese side |
The period in particular is prone to error. The commodity-by-country table places the current-month column and the cumulative column side by side, and the cumulative is built up from January. Mixing single-month figures with the cumulative produces an error of several times over.
If you were to sell Japanese surimi-based products in Vietnam, how large is the volume
Viewed in reverse -- as selling Japanese surimi-based products in Vietnam -- the import market from Japan itself is 21 tonnes over seven months. It is not a scale that a single company can go after, yet it is not as if there is no shelf at all. If you are weighing the option of taking processing local, you will also want to watch the phase in which Vietnam's own seafood-processing capacity is in motion (a major US canned-tuna company's California plant closure and Vietnam's seafood processing）。
A realistic next move is to show your current supplier that, within the 0304.99-993 category, Vietnam's overall unit price rose 16.3% in a year, and to begin price negotiations for 2027 before year-end. Because this JPY 444/kg is CIF, converting it to an ex-factory price requires subtracting freight and insurance. Vietnam's position of 1,844 tonnes out of total imports of 7,798 tonnes, a 23.7% share, also serves as material for gauging the room for alternative sources.
The statistics and original articles verified for this piece are as follows.
- VASEP, "Xuất khẩu sản phẩm surimi chế biến của Nhật Bản tăng 9%" (September 25, 2026): article page
- Ministry of Finance trade statistics, commodity-by-country tables (exports and imports / July 2026, July 2025, December 2025): search page
- Export statistical commodity schedule, Chapter 16 (January 2026 edition): commodity schedule
- Applied tariff schedule, Chapter 3 (August 8, 2026 edition): commodity schedule
- Ministry of Finance trade statistics, notes on use (treatment of low-value cargo): explanatory page
