Aquaculture Licences

All aquaculture businesses have to comply with the requirements of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

This includes having a food safety program. The Australian Shellfish Quality Assurance Program Operations Manual sets out the procedures and administrative practices that will allow your food safety program to meet the food safety requirements for the production, harvest and storage of bivalve shellfish e.g. oysters, scallops, mussels and pipis. 

Aquaculture licence holders must also hold a valid VFA (Victorian Fisheries Authority) licence.

When we give you a licence, you need to meet the licence conditions. This includes having and maintaining a food safety program.

Learn more about Food safety programs.

Contact us if you don’t understand your licence conditions.

There are things your business needs to do before we can give you a licence. To learn about preparing your business before you apply and how to apply go to How to apply for a licence.

You cannot use your own home to grow, manufacture, process or store seafood that you are going to sell. Your facility must be separate but can be at the same address or a dedicated and separate section of the building.

PrimeSafe will audit your aquaculture business.

Bivalve shellfish aquaculture businesses are audited before they start operating and then every six months. 

All other aquaculture businesses have one audit every year. 

There is an application fee when you apply for a new licence.

There is an annual fee to hold a licence that you pay each year in June.

You may have to pay a fine if you do not meet your licence conditions.

We follow the Department of Treasury and Finance’s guideline for setting fees and charges.

Our current fees 

If you harvest multiple species, the licence category is determined by the following list. Your licence category matches the species with the highest position on the list. For example, if you harvest fin fish and blue mussels, then you need a Blue Mussels and Other Shellfish licence. This is because the Blue Mussels and Other Shellfish licence is second on the list and the Fin Fish licence is third.

1. Abalone
2. Blue Mussels and Other Shellfish
3. Fin Fish

The amount of all seafood harvested is added together to give the annual throughput.

Here is an example. If you harvest 1 tonne of abalone and 5 tonnes of fin fish each year, you will need an Abalone licence and your total throughput will be 6 tonnes in the Abalone licence category. In this example the application fee will be $277 and the annual fee will be $554.

The current fees for Aquaculture licenses are:

Calculate the total cost to apply today for a licence

To apply for one of the Aquaculture licenses you need to pay:

• the application fee (paid once only)
• the licence fee (paid when first applying and then every year in June).

The amount you pay when you apply depends upon:

• the amount and type of seafood you want to grow and harvest.
• the time left until the licence is renewed in June (pro rata for the 2 highest fee categories).

Use the Fee Calculator to see what you will pay today to apply for a licence.

All our fees are GST exempt so we will not give you a tax invoice when you pay.

Fee Calculator

Please enter the estimated annual throughput of your seafood business and the species harvested below.