If you’ve been waiting for a fish buying or processing license, you’ll soon be able to apply.
Nova Scotia is lifting the moratorium on issuing new licenses, which has been in place since 2018, according to a news release from the provincial government.
You’ll be able to apply for most species on August 1, with additional licenses available for lobster buyers, as well as snow crab buyer and processor licenses, on January 2, 2026. It’s unclear when lobster processing license applications will be available.
Kris Vascotto, head of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, says he’s cautiously optimistic.
“What this will allow us to do is make custom products that are designed for other worldwide markets,” said Vascotto.
He said it’s a good first step, but there are still a lot of details that have to be sorted out.
In 2018, the moratorium was put in place to maintain fair competition and to reduce industry speculation while the province reviewed their policy. They consulted industry representatives over the last seven years, according to the release.
Along with this, the province is lifting the moratorium on groundfish buying and processing licenses, which have been in place since 1994, when the industry collapsed.
Vascotto said the demand for new buying and processing licenses depends on the type of product and what the market demands. In some cases there would be no space at all, but there’s a lot of opportunity with some products.
“As we’re hearing with lobster, we can build different product types to go into different markets that might be interested. The same applies to ground fish. There has been some revolutionary work that’s been done on ground fish that’s going into Japan these days,” he said.
“It’s a matter of interested entrepreneurs, or even existing people in the industry who are deciding to do something a little bit differently, or want to try something new.”
He added that lifting the moratorium could help the province rely less on the United States and China during the ongoing trade war.
The fishery is Nova Scotia’s largest exporting industry, representing about 36 per cent of the province’s total exports, and the value of those goods totaled $2.4 billion in 2024. About half of the industry is in the southwest part of the province.
Kent Smith, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, echoed that the development would help the fishing industry diversify.
“Now much more than ever, we’re taking action to create flexibility for existing license holders to expand their operations and allow for new entrepreneurs and innovators,” said Smith.
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