Farmed giant tiger prawns in Vietnam

Why Vietnam?

Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of giant tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon), accounting for more than a third of global production at 269 thousand metric tons each year. They are also the second largest exporter of giant tiger prawn to the U.S., claiming nearly a third of products imported into the U.S. However, approximately 30 percent of tiger prawns farmed in Vietnam are rated red.

Areas for improvement

The Vietnamese shrimp industry is dominated by thousands of small farms. It’s challenging for farmers to demonstrate environmental sustainability through eco-certification or ratings programs because the current tools used to collect data, assess farm sustainability, and identify areas for improvement are not well suited for small farms.

Project goal

By 2025, 20,000 giant tiger prawn farms in the Southern Mekong Delta will achieve a green rating as determined by the Aquarium’s Verification Platform.

Roadmap

Demand for farmed shrimp in the U.S. grows by almost five percent every year, and supporting sustainable aquaculture practices in Vietnam is critical to ensuring the availability of green and yellow products for U.S. buyers. The Monterey Bay Aquarium continues to invest in ongoing improvement efforts to address key barriers to sustainable giant tiger prawn production in Vietnam through the application of our Partnership Assurance Model and Verification Platform.

Top producing countries of whiteleg shrimp

(Percent of global production)

Green

Yellow

Certified

Red

Unrated

Vietnam

35% (61% yellow, 9% certified, 30% red)

Indonesia

17% (0.1% certified, 99.9% red)

China

15% (100% unrated)

Bangladesh

9% (0.1% certified, 99.9% red)

India

8% (3% certified, 97% red)

An abstract map of Vietnam, a large blue arrow points to the location of Tam Giang Dong Commune

Project scope

Southern Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon)
Ponds: extensive, mixed rice-shrimp, and silviculture (mangrove shrimp)
Equal to about 40,000 metric tons (15 percent of Vietnam's annual giant tiger prawn production)

Project partners

Amanda Seafood
Camimex Group
Cases
Minh Phu Sharing Good Food
Seafresh Group

Goal

By 2025, 20,000 giant tiger prawn farms in the Southern Mekong Delta will achieve a green rating as determined by the Aquarium’s Verification Platform.

Progress

As of December 2025, 4,174 farm sites have achieved a green rating.

Farms verified

20.9%

4,174 of 20,000
farm sites at green

Farms verified by company

of 2,500 farms

Minh Phu

2,044

CASES

1,112

Camimex

1,018

Updates as of December 2025

2025: CASES verified 618 farms this month (326 new and 292 re-verified), bringing the total number of verified farms to 1,112. Additionally, as of August, 786 giant tiger prawn farms under the CASES/Seafresh Group have achieved a green rating.

Additionally, Dr. Ho Viet Khoa is joining our Global Programs team to design and implement a monodon broodstock assessment process as part of a multi-year collaborative process with the government.

View previous updates

2024: Minh Phu reverified that 1,500 farms are still operating at a level consistent with a green rating and are preparing to assess an additional 2,500 new farms. Both CASES/Seafresh Group and Camimex are also working to verify an additional 1,000 green-rated farms each by the end of the year.

Additionally, the first round of funding from the Aquarium’s Community Development Fund (CDF) was distributed in Vietnam. The CDF uses investments from companies in the seafood supply chain to tackle community projects in aquaculture and fishing communities. This inaugural funding was used to build a bridge in Tam Giang Dong, Vietnam. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held on November 8, and the new bridge was handed over to the local community. The bridge connects six hamlets, provides better access to the hospital and community center, helps children get to school safely, and helps prevent and mitigate accidents during the rainy season.

2023: CASES/Seafresh Group committed to helping 3,000 giant tiger prawn farms reach a green rating within two years. As of August, 292 farms have already achieved this goal. CAMIMEX joined as a partner and committed to verifying 2,000 farms by 2024. They verified 1,018 farms in 2023.

2022: New partner CASES/Seafresh Group committed to helping 3,000 giant tiger prawn farms reach a green rating within two years. Minh Phu had 52 rice shrimp farms achieving green rating.

2021: New staff was hired in March to conduct farm assessments. Despite COVID-related restrictions, the project completed 1,495 farm assessments in 2021.

2020: This year, 506 giant tiger prawn farms were assessed to determine current environmental performance and identify any necessary improvements. In November 2020, all 506 farms were verified as performing at a Seafood Watch green level.

A new bridge for shrimp farmers in Vietnam

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Community Development Fund supported the construction of a new bridge in the heart of Vietnam’s shrimp-farming region.

Data source summary: Giant tiger prawn trade data were taken from the Aquatic Resources Trade in Species dataset (2020). Giant tiger prawn production data are from the FAO (2022). Seafood Watch ratings data are up to date as of February 4, 2025.