Royal Greenland to seek foreign labour

Seafood giant Royal Greenland may import workers from Eastern Europe to end a manpower shortage at its western Greenlandic halibut factory in Ilulissat.

Greenland’s largest corporation, government-run Royal Greenland, has had problems recruiting and retaining qualified local workers, according to the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.

High absentee rates among workers and a shortage of qualified manpower were cited as reasons for the company’s decision to recruit workers from Eastern Europe.

This summer the halibut-processing factory has been forced to operate with a skeleton crew. The plant has a daily intake capacity for 50 tonnes of fish, but processed just 25 tonnes a day during the summer.

Royal Greenland was forced to reroute fish to other cities or freeze the fish for later processing.