An independent constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland shipped US$1.67 billion worth of exported products around the globe in 2023.

That projected dollar amount reflects a 28.8% increase from $1.29 billion 5 years earlier in 2019.

Year over year, the overall value of Greenland’s exports rose 8.7% compared to $1.53 billion in 2022.

Greenland’s top 6 biggest exported products by value are frozen whole fish, crustaceans including lobsters, preserved or prepared crustaceans and molluscs, fish fillets and pieces, dried, salted or smoked miscellaneous fish, then fishing vessels and factory ships. Collectively, those 6 leading export categories represent 95.2% of Greenland’s total export revenues. Such a high percentage indicates Greenland intensely concentrated set of exported goods related to seafood.

Greenland’s Most Valuable Trading Partners

The latest available country-specific data (from 2018) shows that 92.3% of products exported from Greenland were bought by importers in: Denmark (85.3% of Greenland’s global total), Latvia (3.7%), Portugal (0.9%), Russia (0.7%), Iceland (0.6%), Faroe Islands (0.4%), Norway (0.3%), Thailand (also 0.3%), Spain (0.1%), United States of America (0.002%), Bahrain (0.001%) and mainland China (0.0005%).

Given Greenland’s population of 56,609 people its total $1.67 billion in 2023 exports translates to roughly $29,500 for every resident living on the island. That dollar metric exceeds the average $27,000 per capita one year earlier during 2022.

Greenland’s Top 10 Exports

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Greenlandic global shipments during 2023, at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Greenland.

1. Fish: US$1.3 billion (80% of total exports)
2. Meat/seafood preparations: $261.1 million (15.7%)
3. Ships, boats: $27.6 million (1.7%)
4. Gems, precious metals: $9 million (0.5%)
5. Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $5.6 million (0.3%)
6. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $3.8 million (0.2%)
7. Machinery including computers: $3.6 million (0.2%)
8. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $3.1 million (0.2%)
9. Electrical machinery, equipment: $2.7 million (0.16%)
10. Railways, streetcars: $2.3 million (0.14%)

Greenland’s top 10 export product categories accounted for 99.1% of the overall value of its global shipments.

Ships and boats was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 22,013% from 2022 to 2023.

In second place for improving export sales was railways and streetcars via a 3,223% advance.

Greenland’s shipments of salt, sulphur, stone and cement posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 322.5%.

The leading decliner among Greenland’s top 10 export categories was electrical machinery and equipment, recording a -29.7% year-over-year drop.

At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, frozen whole fish represent Greenland’s most valuable exported product at 34.9% of its overall total. In second place were crustaceans including lobsters (34%) trailed by preserved or prepared crustaceans and molluscs (15.6%), fish fillets and pieces (7.9%), dried, salted or smoked miscellaneous fish (1.5%), fishing vessels and factory ships (1.3%), fresh whole fish (1.1%), moluscs (0.5%), precious or semi-precious unstrung stones (also 0.5%), then cruise or cargo ships and barges (0.4%).

Products Generating Greenland’s Best Trade Surpluses

Greenland generated an estimated US$536.4 million product trade surplus in 2023, up 13.9% from $470.1 million in black ink one year earlier for 2022.

The following types of Greenlandic product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.

In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.

1. Fish: US$1.3 billion (Up by 7.1% since 2022)
2. Meat/seafood preparations: $244.1 million (Down by -0.1%)
3. Gems, precious metals: $8.1 million (Up by 20.3%)
4. Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $5.6 million (Up by 18.9%)
5. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $2.4 million (Up by 665.4%)
6. Wool: $244,000 (Up by 194%)
7. Furskins, artificial fur: $92,000 (Reversing a -$564,000 deficit)
8. Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $53,000 (Up by 152.4%)
9. Collector items, art, antiques: $10,000 (Down by -84.1%)
10. Musical instruments: $9,000 (Reversing a -$243,000 deficit)

Greenland has highly positive net exports in the international trade of fish-related categories. In turn, these cashflows indicate Greenland’s strong competitive advantages notably under the fish product category as well as meat or seafood preparations.

Products Causing Greenland’s Worst Trade Deficits

Below are exports from Greenland that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Greenland’s goods trail Greenlandic importer spending on foreign products.

1. Mineral fuels including oil: -US$253.6 million (Down by -2.2% since 2021)
2. Machinery including computers: -$111.5 million (Down by -0.1%)
3. Ships, boats: -$77.8 million (Up by 556.7%)
4. Electrical machinery, equipment: -$55.4 million (Up by 26.4%)
5. Articles of iron or steel: -$54.2 million (Down by -0.7%)
6. Vehicles: -$40.7 million (Down by -5.1%)
7. Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefabricated buildings: -$28 million (Up by 29%)
8. Meat: -$23.5 million (Up by 0.6%)
9. Cereal/milk preparations: -$22.1 million (Up by 9.7%)
10. Plastics, plastic articles: -$20.6 million (Up by 8.3%)

Greenland has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for refined petroleum oils under the mineral fuels-related product category.

Greenlandic Export Companies

Not one corporation based in Greenland ranks on the Forbes Global 2000 list.

Wikipedia lists some exports-related companies from Greenland. Selected examples are shown below.

• Great Greenland Furhouse (fur clothing)
• Greenland Brewhouse (beer)
• Nunaoil (oil, gas)
• Royal Greenland (fish)

 

Greenland’s capital city is Nuuk.

See also Denmark’s Top Trading Partners, Latvia’s Top 10 Exports, Portugal’s Top Trading Partners and Iceland’s Top 10 Exports

Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook North America: Greenland. Accessed on October 18, 2024

FlagPictures.org, Flag of Greenland. Accessed on October 18, 2024

Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on October 18, 2024

International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on October 18, 2024

Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on October 18, 2024

Wikipedia, Greenland. Accessed on October 18, 2024

Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on October 18, 2024

Wikipedia, List of Companies of Greenland. Accessed on October 18, 2024

Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on October 18, 2024