{"id":367428,"date":"2026-03-31T11:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/367428\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:16:08","slug":"stoneville-plant-wants-to-process-more-species-continue-employing-30-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/367428\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoneville plant wants to process more species, continue employing 30 workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Alisha Hodder just wants to run her business, provide employment in her hometown of Stoneville, N.L., and continue a legacy of fish processing she and her\u00a0husband Jerry have built over the years.<\/p>\n

However, she says government regulations are preventing that from happening, and she doesn\u2019t know why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know who’s running the show, but the level of unprofessionalism that I see from these departments is unmatched,\u201d said Hodder, manager at Hodder\u2019s Shellfish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think that Newfoundland[ers] understand what’s happening behind closed doors in all of these organizations \u2026 rural Newfoundland, you know, that’s what they all talk about. I don\u2019t see it. They’re not helping me at all. And I’m pretty rural.\u201d<\/p>\n

At issue is the provincial government\u2019s outside buyers and processing licences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two years ago, following pressure from harvesters, the province opened up the possibility of granting buyer’s licences to allow harvesters, processors and other\u00a0companies to sell their product outside Newfoundland and Labrador.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hodder\u2019s is limited in what species it could process so it applied for a buyer’s licence and received it. At the time, though, they didn\u2019t use it, as the processing of sea urchins was keeping the plant busy and staff employed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ABriley Tulk cracks open urchins at Hodder’s Shellfish in Stoneville (Troy Turner\/CBC)<\/p>\n

In the past year, however, the sea urchin quality their harvesters had access to was dropping, and Hodder\u2019s was looking to supplement the work with a new revenue stream.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They renovated the plant to expand on their refrigeration with the hopes they could use their contacts to sell product outside the province that it is not permitted to process at the plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never, ever wanted to do that,\u201d said Hodder. \u201cI’ve only ever asked for processing \u2026[But] if I stay as a processor, I will fail because they will not let me [process] anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the plan and infrastructure in place, Hodder’s was going to start using their buyer’s licence this spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in February that plan came to an abrupt halt when the province told them existing processors could not carry buyer’s licences if the company planned to continue processing anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt changes everything again,\u201d she said. \u201cI don’t know what to do now. So now I have all of this money that I have invested and [I’m] going to invest and I don’t really see how I’m able to marketably make that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hodder says an easy fix is to allow her company to process other species, as the larger plants are permitted to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me process; that’s all I’m asking for,\u201d she said. \u201cI don’t ask the government for their money. I don’t want the money. I’m doing it on my own. We’re making it work \u2026 that’s what we’ve always tried to do. And so if I want to process it, let me process it. If I can’t survive and my business fails, that’s my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture would not make anyone available for an interview. In a prepared statement, a spokesperson said the government wants to ensure as much seafood as possible is processed in this province, which is why buyer’s licences are being removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough processors are no longer eligible for an outside buyer licence, they can seek an exemption to minimum processing requirements in extenuating circumstances,\u201d the statement read. \u201cNo matter their size, all fish processing plants are eligible to apply for licences to process any species.”<\/p>\n

The department went on to say it’s currently developing a new application process to streamline licensing for fish processors.<\/p>\n

Hodder says the stroke of a pen to allow the company to process more species is all that\u2019s needed. And for the 30 or so employees the plant has in Stoneville, it would secure future work, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people break my heart because they’re good workers,\u201d she said. \u201cThey’re good people. They’re honest people. They show up. They’ll help you in times you don’t even ask \u2026 because we’re all like a family. We’re all a big family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-367428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}