Pacific / American Samoa

Starkist to lease closed American Samoa cannery

08:22 am on 29 May 2018

In American Samoa, the US cannery StarKist has announced it will lease the Samoa Tuna Processing facility in Atu'u, which ceased production in 2016.

The 10-year lease agreement was finalised on Friday.

Photo: RNZI / Monica Miller

The cannery said while the lease was important for its operations, it remained difficult for American Samoa to compete with locations where labour and other costs are substantially lower, or subsidised.

It said it would continue to work with government leaders and local businesses to address critical issues which impact the territory's canneries.