Community
Benefits

Atlantic Canada’s finfish farming industry (salmon and trout) is one of this region’s biggest economic drivers. The sector farming employs over 9,420 people in our region, generates $3.2 billion in total economic output and grows over 356 million meals annually.

Farmed salmon is the second largest agriculture-based export in Atlantic Canada. Atlantic Canadian fish farms produce 50% per cent of Canada’s farmed salmon. Our farmers produce between 40 and 50 thousand tonnes of fish annually, or between approximately eight and ten million fish (harvest per year). More than 75 per cent of our region’s farmed salmon is exported to the United States.

While many of the jobs directly related to finfish farming occur in Atlantic Canada’s rural and coastal communities, the success of finfish farming has created employment opportunities throughout the region in feed manufacturing, packaging, transportation, the supply and service sectors as well as spin-off jobs in other sectors of the community including retail and tourism. Atlantic Canada can reap the benefits from the growing global demand for seafood, and by doing so create even more jobs at home, generate investment and renew the tax base in rural communities.