Tri Marine International wants to have all of its boats based in American Samoa, utilizing the government owned Ronald Reagan Marine Railway Shipyard and bringing more money into the economy of this “paradise” — the “best place in the world” — according to the company’s chairman Renato Curto.
Bellevue based Tri Marine already has ten boats based in Pago Pago and is working on getting the construction of its tuna facility, Samoa Tuna Processors Inc., up and running, investing more than USD 200 million in the tuna boats and tuna facility.
Two Sundays ago, Curto and other shareholders were on island for brief meetings and follow up on the progress of its new cold storage facility construction as well as to see the redevelopment of the tuna processing facility.
They were also to look at some of their boats home based in American Samoa, a total of ten, and during the time of their visit about seven were in port and were being processed to depart out of Pago Pago.
“We are here to make sure that their operations — the boats — can be properly supported with the services and infrastructure they need here,” said Curto in a news conference last Wednesday afternoon. “Each time they come into port, they spend a considerable amount of money to buy fuel, lubes, salt, other supplies and consumables and to make repairs.”
“This is great for the local economy. However, we would like to do more. That’s going to take some investment in facilities,” he said, and noted the company wants to do a lot to help the territory flourish and bringing their boats here is one avenue that is working well so far.
“We want to support the local businesses as much as we can and we expect them to do the job for us. And we are taking measures to make sure that in case we cannot receive the service, we have a back-up plan,” he said.
Asked whether the company has decided to have the shipyard service their boats, Curto said “yes.”
