2017 – and beyond 2016 was a very good year for Royal Greenland. The results for the year will be published later than usual because, from 1 January 2017, our financial year was changed so that it now follows the calendar year. This means that we no longer have to talk about FY 2014/2015 or FY 2015/2016, but simply FY 2016 and FY 2017. As a result of the rescheduling, FY 2015/2016 was closed on 31 December 2016, and it will therefore be several months before we can report in detail on the past year. However, I can reveal that, as mentioned above, last year was a very good one for Royal Greenland. Even though the prices for boiled and peeled prawns fell considerably throughout the year (fortunately from a relatively high level at the beginning of the year), we realised growth in terms of both markets and species. Our overall results were therefore satisfactory. The only fly in the ointment was that, after several good years, our stocks are currently rather large. We succeeded in reducing them somewhat in the last few months of 2016 and early 2017, but it is an area which we need to focus strongly on this year and in future. A stable supply of raw materials combined with a healthy demand will ensure that results will also be satisfactory in 2017. Looking beyond 2017, our success or lack of it depends on the same underlying conditions. There are three prerequisites for Royal Greenland’s continued success: - We need access to fish and shellfish. - We need customers and consumers with an appetite for our fish and shellfish. - We need access to a sufficient number of employees with the right skills to catch and land the fish, to process the fish, and to bring our products to consumers, often on the otherside of the world. Access to fish and shellfish is complex and varied. For the fishing that we do ourselves, it is vital that the ships have sufficient quotas, and that they are sufficiently advanced technologic ally to catch the fish quotas. As regards the fish we buy from the thousands of independent fishermen in Greenland and Canada, it is crucial that we have good relations with our suppliers, and that we make the necessary investments in quality and capacity at our onshore factories. North Americans, South Americans and Asians who have a big appetite for our prawns, crabs, Greenland halibut, cod and other species. It is not difficult to sell our fish and shellfish. What is incredibly difficult on the other hand is finding the customers who, in the long run, are willing to pay the highest prices for our products and who are willing to make long-term investments in developing the markets where the products are sold. Even though the world is changing, I am convinced that Royal Greenland, together with our business partners and customers, will for many years to come be one of the strongest fishing companies in the markets in which we operate. It is the third fundamental prerequisite for success that gives me sleepless nights every so often: Royal Greenland must continue to have a sufficient number of sufficiently competent employees at all levels and in all functions to ensure that every single kilogramme of fish or shellfish will be processed to exactly the right degree so that it maximises the value for us and thus our suppliers and all the local communities where we represent the largest business activity. 2017 also looks promising. Notwithstanding the fact that there is greater uncertainty in the world than there has been for some time, we expect demand for our high-quality fish and seafood to remain strong throughout the year. Generally speaking, there is no reason to believe that our access to raw materials will change dramatically in the course of the year. Even though fish stocks and quotas go up and down, and even though competitors come and go, I am by and large convinced that Royal Greenland will be one of the strongest fishing companies in the world when it comes to ensuring access to resources from the oceans around us. There are many many millions of Europeans, It is no secret that the fishing industry is short of labour almost everywhere fishing activities take place in the northern quarter of the planet. Fishing often happens in places where initially not many people are living. And over many years, the populations in these sparsely populated parts of the world have gradually diminished in size as a result of the rural-to-urban 2 NAVIGATIO NO. 1 • 2017
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