$570,000 boost for Nova Scotia seafood

NOVA Scotia, Canada’s most important seafood export province, is to spend more than half a million dollars expanding its fishing and aquaculture businesses.

The two-year programme will see the state invest $570,000 over the next two years. The fund, called the Seafood Accelerator Programme, was announced by the province’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Keith Colwell.

Nova Scotia says the programme will assist seafood companies to ‘improve current products, create new ones and look at new export markets’.

The minister said in a press release: ‘Helping our producers bring their new and innovative ideas to life can make all the difference in creating growth and jobs in our rural communities.’

The programme, says, Globalnews.ca, will be broken down into three areas:

• A seafood market access food safety programme that will issue $15,000 to help seafood companies take the Global Food Safety Initiative certification, allowing them to access new markets;
• A technical obstacles initiative which will issue $55,000 per year to help companies produce samples, improve packaging and extend shelf life;
• A new product creator initiative which will issue $55,000 per year to help companies develop new products and prototypes.

Nova Scotia is Canada’s seafood export leader, responsible for more than $2 billion or 29 per cent of Canada’s total seafood exports.

Two months ago, Cooke Aquaculture and Cermaq both announced that they were looking at plans for a major expansion of salmon farming in the province.

The Seafood Accelerator Programme will be managed by Perennia, Nova Scotia’s development agency for sustainability and competitiveness in the agriculture and seafood sectors.