Seafood Expo Asia/Seafood Processing Asia (SEA/SPA), organized by Portland, Maine, USA-headquartered Diversified, has announced its 2026 conference program ahead of the fourteenth edition of the event, taking place September 2-4 at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre in Singapore. Free to attend to all registered visitors, this year’s program will bring leading voices from the industry and across technology and policy sectors to address the defining challenges and opportunities shaping seafood’s future across Asia and beyond.
Consumer Trust & Market Dynamics
A session titled “Seafood in the Spotlight: Trust. Taste. Tomorrow’s Consumer” will present findings from a GlobeScan bi-annual survey commissioned by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), tracking consumer attitudes across more than 20 global markets. Attendees will hear how rising sustainability expectations, cost-of-living pressures and shifting retail dynamics are reshaping purchasing decisions and what it takes to build durable consumer trust.
The most pressing issues facing the Asian shrimp trade will be discussed in a session around rebalancing export-dependent supply as demand and price signals shift across major markets. Amid reduced China import pull, elevated US tariffs and uneven farm output trends, these forces are already reshaping trade flows, pricing power and production planning decisions, and will determine which Asian producers can protect margins and maintain market access in 2026–2027.
Innovation & Technology
A panel of industry insiders will discuss the rapid rise of recirculating aquaculture systems across the region in a session titled “RAS Fish Farming: Why is Asia Leading the Way.” The panel will deliver an assessment of real-world challenges alongside compelling results already being achieved in markets across Asia, and what this leadership position means for the future of sustainable fish production worldwide.
A session around Asia’s growing demand for seafood processing will discuss how advanced automation, productivity gains and a sharper focus on consumer trends are significantly changing the industry across Asia. Challenging market conditions are driving the industry to rethink the future of the processing environment, with innovative tools and precise systems now enabling processors to optimize resource utilization and promote sustainability to drive maximum profit. The discussion will features Marcel Franz, managing director of Baader Asia, and Nils Rabe, global sales director for fish at Baader.
Eric Enno Tamm, chief executive officer of ThisFish Inc. will map out the practical and transformative applications of AI across seafood supply chains in “The Definitive Guide to AI & the Tuna Value Chain.” From machine learning and computer vision to generative AI and AI agents, Tamm will outline how these technologies are already reshaping operations and offer a forward-looking vision of what an AI-optimized tuna value chain could look like from boat to plate.
Food Integrity & Digital Resilience
FAO Globefish will convene a timely session titled “Aquatic Food Fraud: Mislabeling, Market Demand and Consumer Trust.” Drawing on FAO’s recent technical paper on food fraud in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, it will examine a problem of significant scale: up to 20% of fisheries and aquaculture products may be mislabeled globally, with fraud particularly prevalent in processed products, restaurants and catering. The session will examine how price incentives, supply chain complexity and governance gaps interact to enable fraud, and what governments, industry, retailers and standard-setting bodies are doing to address it.
“The Invisible Net: Securing the Digital Integrity and Resilience of the Asian Seafood Supply Chain” is a session led by the president of the Cyber Security Alliance for the Seafood Industry (CSAFI) that will address the emerging risk for the sector. As seafood supply chains become increasingly powered by IoT-enabled processing plants, AI-driven logistics and blockchain-backed traceability, they also become vulnerable to cyberattack. With incidents on global logistics networks rising over 900% in five years, a single breach can trigger immediate product spoilage, financial loss and reputational damage.
The session will present a 2026 roadmap for protecting operational technology, defending traceability data against digital fraud and making the business case for cybersecurity as a core ESG and trade compliance imperative.
