For nearly two weeks now, Mr. Le Anh Tu - owner of an imported seafood store on Nguyen Hoang Ton (Tay Ho, Hanoi ) - has been continuously advertising American butter clams, also known as queen butter clams or oil clams, for sale. Each time he advertises for sale, he emphasizes that these are giant, imported clams weighing from 0.3-0.8 kg each.

However, to enjoy this seafood dish, consumers have to spend 580,000 VND for 1kg. If considered by weight, the price of a 0.8kg butter clam is up to 464,000 VND.

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American butter clams are being sold quite a lot at seafood stores. Photo: Anh Tu

“This butter clam is imported from the US, I have just started selling it for a while,” he said. Butter clams have thin shells, a lot of meat, soft and sweet, very suitable for making dishes such as steaming, grilling with scallion oil or cheese, and dipping in hot pot. In particular, butter clams are imported fresh so they can be made into sashimi. However, this type of seafood is quite picky about customers because of its expensive price.

At Mr. Tu’s store, each customer orders only 1-2kg of butter clams. Very few customers order more.

Having sold butter clams for a while, Ms. Kieu Phuong Linh - owner of a seafood shop in Hoang Mai (Hanoi), said that American butter clams cost between 500,000-650,000 VND/kg.

According to her, butter clams are seafood imported from the US, they look quite similar to Vietnamese clams but are much larger in size. For example, yellow clams usually weigh 20-30 pieces/kg, white clams 40-60 pieces/kg, while imported American butter clams weigh an average of 0.2-0.8 kg/piece.

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Rich Vietnamese people often buy butter clams to make grilled dishes or sashimi. Photo: Anh Tu

Currently, the price of butter clams also depends on the weight. Specifically, a 0.2 kg clam costs about 100,000 VND/clam, while a giant 0.8 kg clam costs up to 520,000 VND/clam.

“This season in the North is cold, so customers often choose to buy butter clams for grilled dishes or hot pot,” she said. Therefore, on average, she sells about 300kg of butter clams of all kinds every week.

On holidays or near the Lunar New Year, in addition to buying for food, people also want to buy as gifts. Accordingly, orders for butter clams are also increasing day by day.

The store received quite a few orders for butter clams for the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. Most customers ordered for year-end parties and to welcome the new year.

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A 0.8kg butter clam costs around 500,000 VND. Photo: NVCC

“There was a customer who ordered 5kg of butter clams, requesting the biggest size for grilling,” Linh shared.

In the market, American butter clams are being sold in many high-end seafood stores. The most common weight of butter clams is from 0.3-0.5 kg/piece, the special type weighs up to 0.8 kg/piece. The price of this imported clam ranges from 400,000-650,000 VND/kg.

According to seafood traders, in the Vietnamese market, butter clams are not very popular, most of them only import live clams, no frozen ones. Because this item is aimed at high-end customers, often bought to make sashimi or grilled dishes, so the quality of raw butter clams will be more delicious than frozen ones.

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