Minh Phu shrimp exports up 17 percent as Australia offsets Japan fall
Minh Phu Seafood closed the first nine months of 2026 with USD 440.7 million in export revenue, a 16.9 percent increase year on year. The Vietnamese processor shipped 41,608 metric tons of shrimp between January and September, up 22.9 percent, according to company data reported by SeafoodSource.
The headline number is strong. The interesting part is where the growth came from, and where it did not.
The Numbers
Growth was uneven across markets, and the split matters more than the total.
United States: USD 102.1 million, up 16 percent by value. Volume rose 23 percent to nearly 8,300 metric tons, about 20 percent of total shipments.
Australia and New Zealand: USD 82.3 million combined, up 47 percent. Volume rose 57 percent to 8,125 metric tons.
Japan: USD 87.1 million, down 6 percent. Volume fell 4 percent to 8,250 metric tons. Japan remains the second-largest destination by value.
European Union: USD 50.4 million, up 13 percent. Volume rose 14 percent to 5,094 metric tons.
Canada: USD 37.9 million, up 14 percent by value and 12 percent by volume.
China: USD 4 million, up 40 percent, though still a small market for the company.
Domestic Vietnam: USD 4.7 million, down 29 percent. Volume fell 33 percent to 609 metric tons.
Volume grew faster than revenue, 22.9 percent against 16.9 percent. That works out to an average export price roughly 5 percent below the year-earlier level. That gap is the number worth holding on to, because it describes the market Minh Phu is selling into rather than the company's own execution.
What It Means for Buyers
Two factors shape the outlook for anyone buying Vietnamese shrimp into 2027.
The first is the tariff position. Minh Phu retains an exemption from the U.S. antidumping duty order, which CEO Le Van Quang has called the company's core structural advantage in that market. Since this summer, Vietnamese shrimp has carried an additional 12.5 percent U.S. tariff under an action tied to trading partners' policies on goods produced with forced labour. Comparable Indian and Ecuadorian product faces 10 percent, leaving a gap of 2.5 percentage points.
Quang's argument is that the gap is too small to matter much, because Minh Phu's value-added processed lines do not compete directly with the bulk of Indian and Ecuadorian supply. That reasoning holds for buyers shopping for breaded, cooked, or otherwise further-processed shrimp. It holds less well for anyone buying commodity raw material, where a 2.5 point duty difference sits directly on the landed cost.
The second factor is demand geography. Japan contracted on both value and volume, while Australia and New Zealand absorbed 57 percent more volume than a year earlier. Reallocations on that scale change which specifications and pack sizes are readily available, and they usually show up in lead times before they show up in price.
For buyers, the takeaway is straightforward. Volume is growing faster than value across the Vietnamese shrimp complex, which points to a buyer's market on pricing through the fourth quarter. The constraint is more likely to be tariff and freight arithmetic than availability.
What to Watch
Whether the 12.5 percent U.S. tariff on Vietnamese shrimp is adjusted, extended, or applied to other origins.
Whether Japanese demand recovers. A second consecutive quarter of decline would point to a structural shift rather than a soft patch.
How much of the Australian and New Zealand growth reflects restocking rather than sustained consumption.
Container freight rates into the U.S. and Europe, which have been the swing factor on landed cost all year.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and is published for general information only. It does not constitute trading, pricing, or investment advice, and readers should verify all figures against the original sources linked above before making commercial decisions. Content on this page is partly AI-generated. Easy Seafood makes no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness.
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