In 2025, the U.S. trade deficit in seafood narrowed, with China becoming the largest export market.

Published Mar 4, 2026

Tridge summary

Core insight: The trade imbalance of U.S. seafood is expected to improve by 2025, with the ratio of exports to imports showing some growth, reversing the continuous downward trend over the past five years. On one hand, this is due to the global high tariff policy implemented by the Trump administration, which restricted some import trade; on the other hand, the continuous rise in prices of some wild aquatic products created favorable conditions for export growth.

Original content

The latest statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that in 2025, the United States imported nearly 3.3 million tons of seafood, a slight increase of 2% from the previous year, with an import value reaching 26.6 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3%. U.S. importers paid a total of 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in tariffs last year, which is almost seven times the 364 million U.S. dollars paid in 2024. In terms of the export-to-import ratio, the ratio for 2025 was 0.21:1, higher than the 0.19:1 ratio in 2024. Since 2021, the export-to-import ratio for U.S. seafood has consistently been below 0.20:1. In 2025, U.S. seafood was exported to 157 countries and regions around the world, with exports to China valued at approximately 1.13 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 11%, with an export volume reaching 352,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 10%. China has surpassed Canada to become the largest single export market for the ...

Source: Foodmate