Trade

Trade is established between the colony ship and your colony once the trade center is built. Trading is very simple: The colony ship will request a certain amount of resources of a particular kind and provide you with another resource. Offers vary between assignments, but can be extremely useful for making ends meet, especially in the beginning. Buying ration packs for nanites is always a good choice, as it staves off starvation and increases food variety.

Implementing trade

 * Trade is an essential, rather than optional part of survival on Aven Prime. Each trade hub can support one contract at a time, so either choose wisely or build additional hubs.
 * Each trip takes time and the trade craft has a limited capacity. Plan for this eventuality, as if the ship offers you several hundred units, these will trickle down into your stores, rather than being shipped wholesale. On the other hand, this will reduce the impact on your own resources, avoiding a situation where you are suddenly deprived of several hundred units of food just as winter hits.
 * There are two types of contracts available, permanent and one-shot. Permanent contracts will continue trading until you run out of the requested supplies, while one-shot contracts will terminate once the ship receives the requested amount of resources.

Tips

 * You will need  to build additional structures before unlocking the full list of trade contracts in each mission/sandbox, usually tied to that building. For instance, once you build the retail center, you'll be able to ship in supplies to sell.
 * Don't skimp on trade. Missions like Azara Falls demand trading to sustain your colony.