Arctic Prime has not complied with its procurement obligation

The obligation to procure catches in Greenland has been a major topic of discussion among fishermen, shipping companies, authorities and politicians in this country for many years.

Now it appears that Arctic Prime Fisheries ApS, also called APF, has not complied with the procurement obligation for the shipping company's license for the offshore cod fishing in East Greenland and Southwest Greenland.

From 2020 to 2025, the procurement obligation was not only violated in a single year, but in both 2020, 2023 and 2024.

This is revealed by figures in a paragraph 37 response from Demokraatits Peter Borg, Naalakkersuisoq for Fisheries, Catching, Self-Sustainability and Environment, in connection with Naleraq's Inatsisartut member and fisheries spokesperson Jens Napãtôk's paragraph 37 question about Arctic Prime Fisheries to Naalakkersuisut.

Only 34 percent of the quota was purchased

Napãtôk has sent Naalakkersuisut a barrage of 10 questions, to which the Minister of Fisheries has provided answers.

How many tons of seagoing cod has Arctic Prime Fisheries ApS purchased in South Greenland in 2020-2025, divided by year, Jens Napãtôk has, among others, asked Naalakkersuisut.

A table in Naalakkersuisoq Peter Borg's response to Naleraq's fisheries spokesperson shows how many cod from the offshore fishery, APF has purchased annually in the period 2020-25 to either Nanortalik or Qaqortoq. The company has factories here.

In 2020, Arctic Prime thus had a procurement obligation to land 50 percent of the quota in Greenland to one or more of the factories. That year, the shipping company purchased 34 percent of the quota, the statement shows.

"In 2020, Arctic Prime Fisheries ApS was in correspondence with the ministry with responsibility for fisheries. At that time, Arctic Prime Fisheries ApS pointed out that freezer containers had been sent from Iceland to Nanortalik and argued that this fulfilled the purpose of the purchase obligation as it created employment at the factory.", explains naalakkersuisoq, among other things, for 2020.

In 2022, the former Naalakkersuisut lowered Arctic Prime Fisheries' purchase obligation from the previous 50 percent to 25 percent. The background for halving the company's purchase obligation is not stated in the response from Naalakkersuisoq.

However, the following year, the company only purchased 19 percent of the quota. And in 2024, slightly less was purchased, 18 percent of the quota.

2021 and 2025 were thus the only ones of the five years that Jens Napãtôk has inquired about at Naalakkersuisut, where Arctic Prime Fisheries complied with the cod procurement obligation.

Lack of corporate tax is not a problem

In addition to the fact that the procurement obligation has not been complied with for three years by APF, it is worth noting that Naalakkersuisut Peter Borg will not address the fact that the company has generally not paid corporate tax in Greenland.

Two of Jens Napãtôk's questions have the lack of corporate tax as a focal point. Both times Peter Borg answers indirectly. The last question to Naleraq's fisheries spokesperson is the following:

"Does Naalakkersuisut consider that the fact that Arctic Prime Fisheries Aps mainly makes a loss, and thus does not contribute to society in the form of corporate tax, is something that will be taken into account in assessments of future quota allocations?"

Peter Borg answers this in this way:

"The seagoing quotas are distributed according to section 24 of the Government's Executive Order on licenses and quotas for fishing provided that the companies comply with the Inatsisartutlov om Fiskeri, including section 9, which according to section 77 must be complied with within 10 years after the Inatsisartutlov's entry into force."

The answers thus indicate that Naalakkersuisut does not consider it a problem that APF mainly makes a loss, and therefore does not pay corporate tax in Greenland.

Minister's comment on the question

As Sermitsiaq wrote in an article on February 4, Naleraq's fisheries spokesman Napãtôk links Arctic Prime with possible straw man activities.

The Inatsisartut member has in one of his paragraph-37 questions asked Naalakkersuisut to assess whether the Arctic Prime group is a front company for Icelandic interests.

"Naalakkersuisut currently does not have documentation that the Arctic Prime group constitutes a front company for Icelandic interests", Peter Borg replies.

 

 

 

Arctic Prime Fisheries ApS is 100 percent owned by Arctic Prime Coastal ApS, of which the Icelandic company, Línuskip ehf., owns just under a third.

Línuskip is 100 percent owned by the influential Icelander Gudmundur Kristjánsson. The annual accounts, which are available at the Central Business Register, show that Arctic Prime Fisheries ApS has been running large losses since 2014.

In his answer to Jens Napãtôk's paragraph 37 question, Peter Borg does not write anything about the Ministry of Fisheries having investigated the mortgage conditions in APF's vessels. For example, whether any of Gudmundur Kristjánsson's companies have mortgages in the vessels and if so, how much.

The changing Greenlandic Government has allocated Arctic Prime Fisheries cod quotas since 2007. Over the years, the company has received a large share of the total offshore cod quota, conditional on APF purchasing from factories in South Greenland in order to increase employment and the development of fisheries in the region. Arctic Prime, like others, pays resource rents to the Greenlandic Self-Government.

In the period 2021-25, the company's quota for cod in the waters off East Greenland and Southwest Greenland has been just over 10,000 tonnes and just over 11,000 tonnes annually. In 2020, the company had a landing obligation on their entire quota.