LAND-BASED FISHING INDUSTRY

About half of the Greenlandic catches are processed at trading posts along the coast. Other catches are processed on board vessels or exported for processing. Most of the raw material for the onshore fishing industry comes from in-shore fishing.

In ocean fishing for shrimp, there is requirement to sell 25 per cent of the catch at shore trading posts. By issuing licenses to other types of fishing, a requirement to sell at onshore trading posts may come into effect. This is the case, e.g., for some licenses for halibut in off-shore fishing.

The land-based fishing industry is dominated by the companies owned by the government, Royal Greenland Ltd and Arctic Green Food Ltd. In recent years, however, a number of private companies which purchase and process raw materials locally have been established.

Royal Greenland Ltd

Royal Greenland Ltd is the largest company of Greenland. In 2006, the company had factories in seven towns in West Greenland. In addition, the group owns a number of trading posts in settlements in Qaasuitsup Municipality. The company owns a large part of the ocean-going shrimp trawlers and is thus indirectly involved in fishing for shrimp off Greenland.

Besides factories in Greenland, Royal Greenland Ltd also owns the subsidiary Royal Greenland Seafood Ltd with factories in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Poland, and Canada. Royal Greenland Ltd has sales offices in Denmark and has connections to the most important foreign markets.

Arctic Green Food Ltd

Arctic Green Food Ltd was a subsidiary of the government owned KNI Ltd. The company operates a number of settlement sites and a small number of seafood buyer facilities in towns. In June 2007, Arctic Green Food became a privately owned company, owned by its employees.

Other Privately Owned Seafood Trading Companies

The largest privately owned seafood trading companies include the following:

• Polar Raaja which primarily buys shrimp.
• Arctic Prime Production, which primarily buys cod.
• Upernavik Seafood, primarily buys Greenland halibut.

Figure 1

Buying of Selected Species

Note: The figures for 2007 and 2008 are provisional.

Source: Statistics Greenland

The developments in the traded quantities of selected species is shown in Figure 1. The buying of shrimp, halibut, crab, cod, and lumpfish per month is shown in Table 1.

Previously, the seafood buyer prices were determined after negotiations between Royal Greenland Ltd and the organizations organizing the owners of fishing boats and trawlers (KNAPK and APK).

In recent years, there has been an expansion in the circle of buyers who purchase seafood from fishermen. This has increased the competition for the purchase of commodities and led to a more free pricing.

Figure 2

Development in Price per Kilogramme for Selected Species

Note: The figures for 2006 and 2007 are provisional. The prices per kilogramme are averages for each species. Observed changes may be due to changes in the composition of raw materials within each species.

Source: Statistics Greenland

Trends in the average price per kilogramme of shrimp, halibut, cod, and crab lumpfish shown in Figure 2. Detailed information about seafood buyer quantity and value is shown in Table 8.

Table 9 shows the trend in the number of seafood sellers by income range. As can be seen, the number of sellers has been greatly reduced from 5.025 in 1990 to 3.441 in 2006. The decrease is primarily in the group with annual sales below DKK 10.000.

Links

Read more about Royal Greenland at www.royalgreenland.com.

Read more about Arctic Green Food at www.arcticfood.gl.