Vietnam spent more than 4 billion USD importing meat, meat products and fishery products in the first eight months of 2026, with meat imports rising 26.3% year on year, according to the Customs Department.
Imports of meat and meat products reached more than 1.918 billion USD during the January–August period, up 26.3% from the same period last year, while fishery imports stood at 2.13 billion USD, down slightly by 1%.
Total spending on imports of the two groups therefore exceeded 4 billion USD after eight months.
India remained Vietnam's largest supplier of meat and meat products, accounting for 20.29% of the latter's total import volume. Imports from this market reached 120,800 tonnes worth 521.28 million USD, up 26.5% in volume and 55.8% 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% of Vietnam's total meat import volume, making it the largest category.
Fresh and frozen buffalo meat accounted for 18.89% of import volume and 29.28% of import value, while fresh, chilled or frozen pork made up 18.82% and 10.9%, respectively. Edible offal from pigs, buffaloes and cows accounted for 14.73% of volume and 7.03% of value. Fresh, chilled or frozen beef represented 5.85% of volume and 13.78% of value.
Other meat products accounted for 5.22% of import volume but 26.01% of total import value, statistics show.
In particular, Vietnam imported 112,000 tonnes of fresh, chilled or frozen pork worth 185.5 million USD, up 27.1% in volume but down 20.9% in value year on year. The average import price stood at 1,638 USD 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 USD recorded in 2023 and nearly 1.8 billion USD in 2024.
In 2025, Vietnam imported 978,000 tonnes of meat worth more than 2 billion USD, representing increases of 11.6% in volume and 12.2% 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./.
