Nova Scotia has launched a new three-year strategy aimed at growing and modernizing the province’s seafood industry.
The province says the plan is meant to help seafood businesses respond to rising costs, labour shortages and global trade uncertainty.
The strategy runs from 2026 to 2029 and focuses on four main areas: industry growth and innovation, new markets and products, improved efficiency, and stronger communication between government and industry.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Kent Smith says the goal is to give both government and industry a clearer path forward.
“It sets a clear path for what government has to do to realize success,” Smith said. “And it sets clear priorities for what industry is expected to do.”
Nova Scotia seafood exports were worth about $2.2 billion in 2025.
Smith says the province also shipped seafood to 61 countries last year, but about 75 per cent of exports still went to the United States and China.
“I would love to reduce our reliance on the U.S. and China,” Smith said. “That’s a lot of seafood in one basket.”
The strategy includes $1.5 million this year to launch a Seafood Sector Innovation Hub.
Smith says the hub will be run by the Centre for Marine Applied Research and will help with research, new technology and product development.
He says one of the biggest opportunities is selling more value-added seafood instead of shipping raw product to other markets for processing.
“We need to be using more of our species and making more money from our species,” Smith said.
Smith says customers around the world are looking for seafood that is easier to prepare.
“There’s a much, much larger demand right now for ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook meals,” he said.
The province is also committing $4 million over three years for market diversification.
Other goals include growing aquaculture, helping businesses access support programs, speeding up approvals and improving communication about services available to the seafood sector.
The seafood industry employed about 19,000 people in Nova Scotia last year and remains the province’s top export industry.
Smith says industry groups helped shape the plan and have responded positively.
He says the goal over the next three years is to increase the total value of exports, sell to more countries and reduce reliance on the province’s two biggest seafood markets.
