Vietnam spends over $4bn on meat, fishery imports in eight months

Vietnam spent more than $4 billion importing meat, meat products and fishery products in the first eight months of 2026, with meat imports rising 26.3 percent year on year, according to the Customs Department.

Imports of meat and meat products reached more than $1.918 billion during the January–August period, up 26.3 percent from the same period last year, while fishery imports stood at $2.13 billion, down slightly by one percent.

Total spending on imports of the two groups therefore exceeded $4 billion after eight months.

India remained Vietnam's largest supplier of meat and meat products, accounting for 20.29 percent of the latter's total import volume. Imports from this market reached 120,800 tonnes worth $521.28 million, up 26.5 percent in volume and 55.8 percent in value year on year.

Imports of meat and meat products also increased in both volume and value from several other suppliers, including the US, Brazil, Spain, Canada, Germany, Türkiye, Japan and New Zealand.

Meanwhile, imports from Russia, the Republic of Korea, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy declined in both volume and value compared with the same period in 2025.

Vietnam mainly purchases poultry, pork, buffalo and beef, along with various edible offal products.

Based on complete data for the first seven months of the year, fresh, chilled or frozen poultry meat and edible offal accounted for 36.49 percent of Vietnam's total meat import volume, making it the largest category.

Fresh and frozen buffalo meat accounted for 18.89 percent of import volume and 29.28 percent of import value, while fresh, chilled or frozen pork made up 18.82 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively. Edible offal from pigs, buffaloes and cows accounted for 14.73 percent of volume and 7.03 percent of value. Fresh, chilled or frozen beef represented 5.85 percent of volume and 13.78 percent of value.

Other meat products accounted for 5.22 percent of import volume but 26.01 percent of total import value, statistics show.

In particular, Vietnam imported 112,000 tonnes of fresh, chilled or frozen pork worth $185.5 million, up 27.1 percent in volume but down 20.9 percent in value year on year. The average import price stood at $1,638 per tonne, down 38.4% from the same period last year.

The country's spending on meat imports in the first eight months of this year was nearly equivalent to the full-year figure for 2025, and far exceeded the $1.43 billion recorded in 2023 and nearly $1.8 billion in 2024.

In 2025, Vietnam imported 978,000 tonnes of meat worth more than $2 billion, representing increases of 11.6 percent in volume and 12.2 percent in value from 2024, reported the Customs Department.

With 17 free trade agreements currently in force, import tariffs on many meat products have fallen to zero, creating favourable conditions for imports. Exporters from the EU, India, Poland and other markets continue to view Vietnam as a promising destination.

However, the growing volume of imported meat is also putting considerable competitive pressure on domestic suppliers.