Commercialisation of new species

One opportunity is that more species are developed commercially and made available to consumers as food products. This will benefit both our business and the society, since new products would also create more local employment.

A small business development department in Greenland, staffed with a marine biologist and laboratory personnel, is focused on trial fisheries and the development of such species as whelk, sea urchin, sea cucumber and seaweed. Fishing, cultivation and sampling are lengthy processes that, from season to season, give us more knowledge and enable us to develop new marine resources for the market.         

Risks and opportunities 

Dependence on fishing for wild species considered to be a renewable, but limited resource may be subject to uncertainty. The sea and thereby stocks are vulnerable to environmental impacts and possible overfishing.  

At Royal Greenland we therefore work to promote sustainable fishing of existing species, and to commercialise new species and fisheries. In recent years we have worked with production trials and upscaling of seaweed cultivation, as a consumer product and also for CO2 capture.  

Goals and results 2023

Target:

• Commercialisation of at least one new species

Result:

• No new species are commercialised

Despite significant efforts to develop new species, it has not yet been possible to commercialise any of the new fishing tested, or the seaweed production.  

For sea urchin and whelk, there are challenges in obtaining permits to use suitable tools for this task, as it is necessary to scrape the seabed to catch the benthic species that live very close to the seabed, and do not move. This is a matter to be resolved in cooperation with Greenland's Ministry of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture, as fishing can be limited to selected locations.  

Ambitions for 2030 

Commercialisation of at least three new species