Vietnam's seafood exports to the Middle East reached roughly USD 401 million in 2025, up about 9.6% year-on-year, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). That's still only 3-4% of Vietnam's total seafood export value of USD 11.3 billion, but it's one of the faster-growing regional lanes, and the product mix and logistics reality behind that number matter more than the headline growth rate if you're buying out of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, or Qatar.
Pangasius leads, but the mix is shifting toward higher value
Pangasius accounts for the largest single share of Vietnam's Middle East seafood exports, at roughly USD 176 million in 2025, with shrimp and higher-value wild-caught species making up most of the rest. That's consistent with what I see on the ground: pangasius fillet is the entry product for most Gulf importers because it's price-stable, familiar to processors, and easy to private-label for retail and foodservice. But the growth is increasingly coming from shrimp and processed/value-added lines -- canned and processed tuna into UAE and North African retail chains and restaurant groups is one example reported in industry press. If you're currently a pangasius-only buyer, that's worth watching: the suppliers building real relationships in this region are diversifying their Gulf offer, not just shipping more of the same commodity line.
Halal certification has moved from nice-to-have to baseline requirement
Vietnam now has a meaningful base of halal-certified food exporters, and seafood processors serving Muslim-majority markets increasingly treat halal certification as a core export capability rather than a niche add-on -- several of Vietnam's larger seafood processors have obtained halal certification specifically to grow business in Middle East and Southeast Asian Muslim markets. For a buyer in Riyadh, Jeddah, or Dubai, the practical implication is that halal certification should be treated as a minimum screening criterion when shortlisting a Vietnamese factory, not a bonus feature -- ask for the certificate and the certifying body up front, because not every factory that ships pangasius or shrimp internationally has gone through the process, and retrofitting a production line for a rushed order is where quality slips happen.
Jebel Ali is the real gateway -- and the real chokepoint
Most Vietnamese seafood destined for the Gulf moves through transshipment at Jebel Ali Port in Dubai before onward distribution to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and neighboring markets. That routing makes the Strait of Hormuz the single most consequential piece of geography in this trade lane. When regional tensions escalated earlier in 2026, major container lines -- Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, and MSC among them -- suspended bookings to some Gulf ports, added war-risk surcharges, and rerouted vessels, adding 7-14 days to transit on some routes. Freight rates on the Asia-Dubai lane nearly doubled within days, with emergency surcharges reported in the USD 1,500-4,000 per container range, and refrigerated container costs rising by several hundred dollars per unit on top of that.
Why a freight spike matters more here than elsewhere
Seafood industry margins typically run 5-7%, which is thin enough that a one-to-two-week shipping delay -- through container detention, extra cold storage, and financing costs -- can erase a meaningful share of profit on a shipment. If you buy seafood into the Gulf on a delivered-price basis, this is not an abstract risk: it's the reason your supplier may come back mid-contract asking to renegotiate freight terms, and it's worth building a shared-cost clause into new contracts now rather than negotiating it under pressure during the next disruption.
What this means for your next order
Three things to act on if you're sourcing seafood from Vietnam into the UAE, Saudi Arabia, or Qatar: confirm halal certification and the certifying body before you shortlist a factory, not after; ask explicitly whether your shipment routes through Jebel Ali and what contingency routing your freight forwarder has if Gulf transshipment is disrupted again; and build a freight-cost-sharing clause into contracts now, since the current volatility in Gulf shipping is a structural risk for this lane in 2026, not a one-off event.
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