Vietnam's shrimp industry has placed the domestic production of 'seed stock (con giống)' upstream in farming at the top of its agenda. At a July 30, 2026 meeting in Ho Chi Minh City between the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the industry associations, Mai Văn Hoàng, chairman of the Vietnam Shrimp Association, noted that while first-half shrimp exports grew 13.6% year on year to US$2.3 billion (about ¥356.5 billion at ¥155 to the dollar, approximate), the beach price of market shrimp sat at its lowest level in years. The chairman's proposed way out rested on four pillars, at the center of which was investment in seed-stock research to hold the genetic resources of broodstock in-house. For importers and buyers in Japan, this is not a matter of the 'buy because it is cheap' stage but an upstream structural change that shapes how readable price and supply will be.
Beach prices at their lowest, yet exports grew to US$2.3 billion: Vietnamese shrimp in the first half
First, pin down the figures. First-half shrimp exports of US$2.3 billion make up 40.5% of all Vietnamese seafood exports. Output was about 700,000 tonnes, up 8.1% year on year, and the country's annual production capacity is put at 1.1–1.2 million tonnes. Intensive farming using advanced technology is said to deliver five to ten times the productivity of conventional methods. Growth was led by China and Hong Kong, which reached US$845 million in the first half alone — more than a third of the total — with momentum of 47% growth. Meanwhile, exports to the U.S. were about US$290 million, down 15% year on year. A 25.76% tariff, plus an additional 10% tariff that took effect in February, together with tighter antibiotic and sanitation standards, have left Western markets treading water.
| Indicator (first half of 2026) | Figure | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| Shrimp export value | US$2.3 billion (about ¥356.5 billion, approximate) | +13.6% |
| Share of seafood exports | 40.5% | — |
| Output | About 700,000 tonnes | +8.1% |
| To China and Hong Kong | US$845 million | +47% |
| To the United States | About US$290 million | −15% |
Sales rise, beach prices fall. When these two happen at once, what cuts into the farmer's profit last is cost. Sitting at the entrance of cost alongside feed is the broodstock from which juvenile shrimp come.
SIS holds 60% of broodstock and CP 30% — import dependence keeps the cost floor rigid
The juvenile shrimp used at Vietnamese farms trace their parents mostly back to foreign bloodlines. By industry estimates, the two largest suppliers of broodstock to Vietnam are SIS (Shrimp Improvement Systems) at about 60% and the CP Group at about 30%, with the rest split among others. Major breeders such as SIS, Kona Bay (Hendrix Genetics), and Moana keep breeding bases in Hawaii, which at one point held a 38% share as a supplier of the world's SPF (specific-pathogen-free) broodstock. Vietnam has covered this upstream segment almost entirely through imports.
Import dependence carries three weaknesses. First, price: the unit price of broodstock and the shipping costs do not fall in step no matter how far local beach prices drop. When beach prices enter their lowest stretch, farmers' margins are eaten first by the cost of juveniles. Second, quality and disease: variation in bloodlines and in transport feeds directly into survival and growth rates. Third, the ease with which supply breaks down: if any one of export controls, quarantine, or logistics jams up, the whole plan for next season's juveniles is thrown off. Domestic production means moving to the side that controls these three risks within the country.
At the company level, moves to capture this upstream segment are already running ahead. For instance, the case of Kona Bay directing its own seed-stock brand toward quality improvement for supply to Japan (Kona Bay's shrimp seed Balance Pro: upstream quality improvement shapes shrimp supply to Japan) has shown the value of the upstream as one company's product strategy. What is different about the association's policy this time is that it bundles that not as an individual firm's product but at the level of industrial policy, seeking to place the genetic resources themselves in the nation's hands.
What the four measures converging on Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, and Soc Trang contain
Breaking down the four pillars Chairman Hoang set out, from the sourcing side, comes out like this.
| Measure | Details | What the sourcing side should read into it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Policy support for advanced farming | Expanded support for intensive, high-technology farming | Five to ten times the productivity shores up price competitiveness |
| 2. Infrastructure investment in key producing areas | Integrated infrastructure for Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, and others | The more production concentrates, the easier tracing and securing volume become |
| 3. R&D investment in seed stock | Securing broodstock genetic resources and domestic breeding | The core, tied directly to the cost and quality stability of juveniles |
| 4. Transparency on the origin of imported raw material | A system to monitor the origin of imported shrimp | Prevents the mixing in of other countries' product and protects the proof-of-origin value of Vietnamese shrimp |
Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, and Soc Trang, named in measure 2, are shrimp-producing areas in the Mekong Delta, where a wide range of systems line up, from intensive farming to extensive and polyculture. If infrastructure and seed-stock improvement take effect here at the same time, the variation in quality narrows at the producing-area level. In Ca Mau, an effort by the EU and an NGO to establish 'low-emission shrimp' as proof for sourcing over 42 months (EU and NGO, 42 months: will Ca Mau's "low-emission shrimp" become proof for procurement?) is already under way, and domestic seed-stock production overlaps with the direction of completing the foundation for such proof-making within the country.
The origin transparency of measure 4 should not be overlooked either. If other countries' shrimp flows out labeled as Vietnamese, the value of the proof of origin itself thins. Reducing dependence on imported broodstock and tightening surveillance of imported finished goods are two sides of the same measure to protect the 'made in Vietnam' label.
VASEP's downstream policy of earning through processing and the upstream policy of holding the seed stock draw the same picture
Domestic seed-stock production is an upstream matter, but over the past few years Vietnam's seafood industry has steered in the same direction downstream as well. It is a shift from a business of selling raw material cheaply to one of processing it, adding value, and selling that. The push for value-addition led by VASEP (the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers) (From raw-material exports to processing: the value addition VASEP shows and Japan's sourcing move) amounts to a design to reclaim margins downstream. Holding the upstream seed stock in-house and processing and selling downstream — when these two come together, Vietnamese shrimp shifts in character from a 'cheap primary product' to 'an industry that can set its own price.'
For Japanese sourcing, this means the premises of purchasing terms are shifting. If seed stock is domestically produced and the cost of juveniles stabilizes, swings in beach prices are curbed and annual purchasing plans become easier to set. As processing advances, intermediate goods such as peeled, pre-prepped, and seasoned products can be sourced locally, offsetting the labor shortage at home. Put the other way, if the other side holds both the upstream and the downstream, the initiative in price negotiations shifts to the seller. Tracking the progress of seed-stock improvement and how concentrated the producing areas are, now, will shape sourcing costs a few years out.
Voices on the ground are divided too. From Mekong farmers comes the complaint that 'beach prices are at rock bottom, yet only the cost of juveniles won't come down — because the broodstock is imported.' Hatchery people, on the other hand, are cool-headed: 'Stabilizing your own broodstock line is a ten-year job, not something that gets replaced in a few years.' Among Japanese import buyers there is a view that 'if seed stock becomes domestic and stable, supply and price become readable. First we want to see how much volume turns toward Asia now that the U.S. route is clogged.'
Sources referenced
- Nông nghiệp và Môi trường — Gỡ điểm nghẽn từ vùng nuôi đến con giống để ngành tôm bứt phá
- Tuoi Tre News — Vietnam shrimp exports hit $2.35bn in January-June
- Tuoi Tre News — Asia powers Vietnam’s shrimp boom, leaving the West behind
- Shrimp Insights — A 2025 Update of the SPF L. Vannamei Broodstock Market
