Made-in-Vietnam vegetarian fish sauce appears on US supermarket shelves

Brewed with pineapple, soybeans and Japanese Shiitake mushrooms, the "3 in 1" Lang Chai Xua vegetarian fish sauce has been appearing on the shelves of many U.S. retailers this month.

Tran Ngoc Dung, director of Seagull Ltd. which owns the fish sauce line, said the product was the result of two years’ research into the U.S. market and of cooperating with the Texas-based CTWS Group.

Products officially exported to the U.S. have to meet stringent standards concerning production, pasteurization, bottling, inspection and labeling in compliance with regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“We feel that the trend of plant-based eating in taking shape more clearly in the U.S. market than in Vietnam. When trying this vegetarian fish sauce at Vietnamese markets in the U.S., everyone was surprised by its delicious taste, which was no less than the normal salty fish sauce.

Therefore, we decided that the first containers of goods would have our vegetarian fish sauce. Our product is also different from that of Thai or Chinese fish sauce companies in the U.S.," Dung said.

In addition to the vegetarian fish sauce, Seagull also exports two other types of fish sauce, namely anchovy ear fish sauce and red-fleshed yellow anchovy fish sauce, all under the Lang Chai Xua brand.

Each type is processed differently, so the flavors are quite different, according to Dung. The anchovy ear fish sauce belongs to the traditional fish sauce line, brewed from anchovies, while the red-fleshed yellow anchovy fish sauce is brewed with rare red-fleshed yellow anchovies that live in nutrient-rich upwelling waters.

The first batch of Lang Chai Xua fish sauces, including the three types, was packed in a 20-foot container.

The products hit U.S. supermarket shelves on August 12, 2024, and have been posted on sayweee.com with a selling price of $6.69 for a 500 ml bottle of vegetarian fish sauce; $6.49 a bottle of charcoal anchovy fish sauce; and $13.59 a bottle of red-fleshed yellow anchovy fish sauce.

Dziem Chinh, representative of the CTWS Group, said that the fish sauce market in the U.S. was dominated by manufacturers from Thailand and Hong Kong. These exporters were present early and their products are priced low, because they are industrially produced.

Chinh said vegetarian fish sauce has the potential to be widely accepted by Americans. He said a preliminary survey has shown that there are no major vegetarian fish sauce brands in the U.S. market at present.