The 170 holders of professional lobster licences in the local Southern Zone will be obliged to pay almost $30,000 in licence fees to the State Government for the coming 2024/25 season.
The updated rates have recently been published in the Government Gazette.
The base fee is $8071 plus an additional $187 per pot.
Meanwhile, Riverland MP and former Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone has told the House of Assembly the lobster industry is at a turning point.
“We have a world-class product, we have a journey that for lobster fishermen has been varied in the last four years,” Mr Whetstone said.
“We have boats sitting in ports unused, we have licences that are being transferred or sold due to hardship, we have fleets of ships that now do not have licences attached to them, and so they continue to sell those licences.
“But the rot did not just stop with China.
“The rot stopped with marine parks, COVID, planes, trade barriers, and the industry is afloat but only just.”
