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- About Your Licence
- Seafood Retailer Licence
Seafood Retailer Licence
What you need to know about a Seafood Retailer licence.
Summary
- In Victoria you need a Seafood Retailer licence to sell seafood.
- A seafood retailer business mainly sells seafood for human consumption. This can be from a fixed shop, vehicle or boat.
- Seafood retailers can also wholesale up to one tonne of product each week. This is on top of your retail sales without the need to upgrade your licence.
- You do not need a licence to sell bait.
What you can do with a Seafood Retailer licence
Get a Seafood Retailer licence to:
- sell seafood from a retail shop
- sell less than 50 tonnes of seafood through wholesale sales each year from a retail shop
- process and store seafood mainly for retail sale
- sell seafood from a fixed shop, vehicle or boat.
PrimeSafe issues this licence under the Seafood Safety Act 2003.
What you can’t do with a Seafood Retailer licence
You cannot:
- harvest seafood that you have grown (get an Aquaculture licence)
- wholesale more than 50 tonnes of seafood each year (get a Seafood Processing Facility licence)
- sell pet food (get a Pet Food Establishment licence)
- transport meat or seafood if you have a fixed shop licence only (get a Meat Transport Vehicle licence)
All seafood 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.
If you also process or store meat or poultry, your food safety program has to include the principles of a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan.
Learn more about Food Safety programs.
When we give you a licence, you need to meet the licence conditions. Get help from 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.
Seafood retailers are audited in the first week after opening and then once per year.
A seafood business that manufactures smallgoods has two audits per year.
Audits are conducted by a PrimeSafe approved auditor.
Find out about Audits.
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 December.
There are other charges when you hold a licence with PrimeSafe. Your licence requires your retail facility to be audited. You will have to pay an auditor to conduct the audits.
You may have to pay a fine if you do not meet your licence conditions.
PrimeSafe follows the Department of Treasury and Finance’s guideline for setting fees and charges.
Our current fees
The current fees for a Seafood Retailer licence are:
- $375 – Application fee
- $749 – Annual fee (full 12 months).
All our fees are GST exempt so we will not give you a tax invoice when you pay.
Calculate the total cost to apply for a licence
To apply for a Seafood Retailer licence you need to pay:
- the application fee (paid once only)
- the licence fee (paid when you first apply and then every year in December).
The amount you pay when you apply depends upon the time left until the licence is renewed in December (pro rata).
Use the Fee Calculator to see what you will pay today to apply for a licence.
Fee Calculator
Standards and guidelines that apply
This manual covers the food standards for businesses harvesting bivalve shellfish for human consumption.
We're here to help
Send us your questions and we'll get back to you in two to seven business days.
