An independent constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland shipped US$1.68 billion worth of exported products around the world in 2025.
That calculated dollar amount reflects a 16.1% increase from $1.45 billion 5 years earlier in 2021.
Year over year, the overall value of Greenland’s exports rose 7.1% compared to $1.57 billion in 2024.
Greenland’s top 6 biggest exported products by value are frozen whole fish, crustaceans including lobsters, preserved or prepared crustaceans and molluscs, fish fillets and pieces, fresh whole fish then unwrought gold.
Collectively, those 6 leading export categories represent 95.8% of Greenland’s total export revenues. Such a high percentage indicates Greenland intensely concentrated set of exported goods related to seafood.
Greenland’s Most Valuable Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data (from 2018) shows that 92.3% of products exported from Greenland were bought by importers in: Denmark (85.3% of Greenland’s global total), Latvia (3.7%), Portugal (0.9%), Russia (0.7%), Iceland (0.6%), Faroe Islands (0.4%), Norway (0.3%), Thailand (also 0.3%), Spain (0.1%), United States of America (0.002%), Bahrain (0.001%) and mainland China (0.0005%).
Given Greenland’s population of 55,745 people its total US$1.68 billion in 2025 exports translates to roughly $30,200 for every resident living on the island. That dollar metric surpasses the average $27,600 per capita one year earlier during 2024.
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Greenlandic global shipments during 2025, at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Greenland.
- Fish: US$1.3 billion (80.1% of total exports)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $267.8 million (15.9%)
- Gems, precious metals: $21.4 million (1.3%)
- Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $10 million (0.6%)
- Machinery including computers: $9.2 million (0.5%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $4.95 million (0.3%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $4.1 million (0.2%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: $3 million (0.2%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $2.2 million (0.13%)
- Miscellaneous textiles, worn clothing: $1.5 million (0.09%)
Greenland’s top 10 export product categories accounted for 99.3% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Gems and precious metals represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 1,199% from 2024 to 2025.
In second place for improving export sales was miscellaneous animal-origin products via a 247.6% advance.
Greenland’s shipments of mineral fuels including oil posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 179.3%. That product category was propelled by greater revenues for sales of processed petroleum oils.
The lone decliner among Greenland’s top 10 export categories was the optical, technical and medical apparatus thanks to a -30.7% year-over-year drop.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, frozen whole fish represent Greenland’s most valuable exported product at 45.2% of its overall total. In second place were crustaceans including lobsters (24.3%) trailed by preserved or prepared crustaceans and molluscs (15.8%), fish fillets and pieces (7.1%), fresh whole fish (2%), unwrought gold (1.3%), dried, salted or smoked miscellaneous fish (1.1%), miscellaneous animal products (0.6%), heavy machinery such as bulldozers and excavators (0.3%) then feldspar, leucite, nepheline and nepheline syenite and fluorspar (also 0.3%).
Products Generating Greenland’s Best Trade Surpluses
Greenland generated an estimated US$538.9 million product trade surplus in 2025, up 4.3% from $516.7 million in black ink one year earlier for 2024.
The following types of Greenlandic product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Fish: US$1.3 billion (Up by 8.6% since 2024)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $248.3 million (Up by 11.8%)
- Gems, precious metals: $15.8 million (Up by 2719.6%)
- Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $9.9 million (Up by 252.5%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $2.3 million (Up by 30.2%)
- Wool: $64,000 (Reversing a -$100,000 deficit)
- Furskins, artificial fur: $39,000 (Reversing a -$10,000 deficit)
- Lead: $6,000 (Reversing a -$73,000 deficit)
- Ores, slag, ash: $1,000 (Down by -80%)
- Tin: -$1,000 (Reversing a -$6,000 deficit)
Greenland has highly positive net exports in the international trade of fish-related categories. In turn, these cashflows indicate Greenland’s strong competitive advantages notably under the fish product category as well as meat or seafood preparations.
Products Causing Greenland’s Worst Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Greenland that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Greenland’s goods trail Greenlandic importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$206.3 million (Down by -8.7% since 2024)
- Machinery including computers: -$111.9 million (Down by -0.2%)
- Ships, boats: -$109 million (Reversing the $46.6 million surplus)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$61.7 million (Up by 27.9%)
- Vehicles: -$54.1 million (Up by 18%)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: -$38 million (Up by 15.1%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$36.7 million (Down by -12.6%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefab buildings: -$28.4 million (Up by 20.7%)
- Meat: -$27.8 million (Up by 21%)
- Cereal/milk preparations: -$26.4 million (Up by 20.1%)
Historically, Greenland has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for refined petroleum oils under the mineral fuels-related product category.
Greenlandic Export Companies
Not one corporation based in Greenland ranks on the Forbes Global 2000 list.
Wikipedia lists some exports-related companies from Greenland. Selected examples are shown below.
- Great Greenland Furhouse (fur clothing)
- Greenland Brewhouse (beer)
- Nunaoil (oil, gas)
- Royal Greenland (fish)
Greenland’s capital city is Nuuk.
See also Denmark’s Top Trading Partners, Latvia’s Top 10 Exports, Portugal’s Top Trading Partners and Iceland’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook North America: Greenland. Accessed on August 19, 2026
FlagPictures.org, Flag of Greenland. Accessed on August 19, 2026
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on August 19, 2026
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 19, 2026
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on August 19, 2026
Wikipedia, Greenland. Accessed on August 19, 2026
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on August 19, 2026
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Greenland. Accessed on August 19, 2026
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on August 19, 2026
