Recent Changes in Trade and Transport in West Greenland

West Greenland has long been dependent on the sea for its wealth, supplemented by a small production of coal for domestic use, and cryolite for export. While sea mammals such as seals, walrus and small whales were for long the mainstay of native hunters, changes in water temperatures in the past thirty years have brought cod into coastal waters and permitted contemporary economic expansion. Transport today is of far greater significance than formerly. The old subsistence economy supplemented by modest imports from Europe paid for by exports of seal and other oils, has given way to a modern trading economy with large imports of fuel, construction materials and a wide variety of consumer's goods. These are paid for, in part, by exports of dried, salt and frozen fish. The former small ocean‐going vessels are no longer adequate, and modern passenger‐cargo ships owned by the government trading company and an equal tonnage of chartered vessels are used. Modern coaster carry exports from outposts to the main harbours, which are themselves being modernized. Cryolite has been exported for almost a hundred years. That for North America is carried in chartered vessels which convey little or no cargo to Greenland. That destined for Copenhagen provides a return cargo for vessels carrying supplies to Greenland settlements. Apart from the commercial fishing by Greenlanders, there is a growing production from vessels from Norway, Denmark and the Faeroes, which are based on special Greenland harbours. These are serviced by large freighters bringing salt and other supplies and carrying away fish products. This trade is completely separate from that of Greenland proper, and it does not appear in published statistics. In recent years imports to Greenland settlements have amounted to about 50,000 tons per annum, made up approximately of coal 20%, salt 20%, and general cargo including oil fuel, 60%. Exports have been slightly larger, amounting to about 60,000 tons of which 80% by weight has been cryolite

Archaeology · Business · Economics · Economy · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Subsistence agriculture · Tonnage · Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Oceanography