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Sunday 05.02.2012

Seal product ban will hurt Great Greenland

That's because few are aware that the ban exempts Inuit sealskins...

The exemptions allowing Greenland limited seal product trade for Inuit in the European Union should be exploited, some industry and political sources say.

Despite the general negative reaction to an imminent seal product trade ban in the EU, special exemptions for Inuit communities have created the potential for Greenland to exploit what will in effect be a monopoly of the market in Europe.

"The original suggestion was a total ban, but with the Inuit exception we have access to a market that nobody else does, which in affect creates a monopoly,’" said Lida Skifte Lennert, head of Greenland’s representation in Brussels. "Now it is up to us to take advantage of that situation."

But the marketing campaign that would be required to exploit the potential European market may face a difficult task due to the lack of awareness that there is an Inuit exception to the ban, Sermitsiaq says.

Great Greenland's managing director Henrik Estrup said the problem is that the consumer cannot not differentiate between Inuit seal skin and other skins.

"Initially it seems like we have a trade advantage but there are very few consumers aware of the Inuit exception.'