On August 24, 2026, the trade publication Vietnam Fisheries Magazine reported that the certification body DNV had awarded ASC Farm Standard (the Aquaculture Stewardship Council's farm standard) certification to the shrimp-farming cooperative \"HTX Thanh Dat (Thanh Dat High-Tech Shrimp Farming Cooperative)\" in Ca Mau province in southern Vietnam. For Japanese food buyers and trading companies, this is not just the story of a single farm. As major retailers such as AEON build ASC into their sourcing policies, certified origins become easier to shortlist in negotiations for Japan and the EU. However, as noted below, attaching an ASC label to a product requires separately confirming certification on the processing and distribution side.<\/p>\n
The certified HTX Thanh Dat is a shrimp-farming cooperative in Ca Mau province in which multiple producers take part. According to the cooperative overview the magazine reports, the scope covers two species, whiteleg (vannamei) and black tiger, with the EU, the United States, Japan, Australia, and South Korea listed as supply destinations. DNV's announcement also gives concrete figures for farming area, number of participating households, and annual output, but these are figures that rely on the certification body's announcement and have not been cross-checked against other third-party statistics. Figures on scale that directly bear on supply capacity are, as noted below, items that buyers themselves should verify firsthand, so this article reads primarily around the fact of certification and the covered species.<\/p>\n
The ASC Farm Standard is a framework that audits farm management and impact on the natural environment, the health and welfare of the farmed species (shrimp), and the human rights of workers and local communities, along four principles: the farm, the fish, the people, and the environment. Tran Thanh Trieu, the cooperative's chairman and representative, commented that \"obtaining ASC Farm Standard certification is an important milestone for our cooperative.\"<\/p>\n
Rachel Ng, Food & Beverage Manager for DNV in Southeast Asia and Oceania, issued a comment to the effect that responsible aquaculture starts at the farm level and that certification to the ASC Farm Standard provides an independent third-party assessment. This character of \"third-party assessment\" is what takes effect in procurement settings in Japan and Europe.<\/p>\n
Japan's major retailers and restaurant chains hold up MSC (wild) and ASC (farmed) as certifications demonstrating the sustainability of seafood in their sourcing policies. AEON expanded ASC\/MSC-compatible sales floors early on and has gradually increased its handling of certified seafood. From a buyer's standpoint, the presence or absence of certification becomes a first-pass screen for \"whether it can go on the shelf.\" There are sales floors and product groups where certification has become a de facto prerequisite, and cases arise where a non-certified product drops off the shortlist.<\/p>\n
Vietnamese shrimp holds a major position in supply to Japan, but farms that have already obtained the ASC Farm Standard remain a fraction of the whole. Certified origins gain room to be chosen on a different axis\u2014meeting requirements\u2014one step away from the arena of competing on price alone. For buyers, even among the same Vietnamese shrimp, the \"certified\" group has one more entry point to negotiations.<\/p>\n
According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), shrimp export value for January\u2013July 2026 was about US$2.8 billion, up 13.5% year on year, and July alone was US$451.5 million, up 10.1% year on year. The value exceeds the prior year, but July was slightly below June's US$458.2 million. The macro figures show growth, but they do not reveal the content market by market.<\/p>\n