Employees at American Samoa's Starkist cannery. Photo: RNZI / Monica Miller
In American Samoa, the US cannery StarKist has announced that it will lease the Samoa Tuna Processing facility in Atuu, which ceased production in 2016.
The 10-year lease agreement was finalised on Friday.
The cannery says while this is positive news for its operations, it remains difficult for American Samoa to compete with locations where labour and other costs are substantially lower, or subsidised.
It says it will continue to work with government leaders and local businesses to address critical issues which impact the canneries.