StarKist announced it has signed a 10-year lease agreement for Tri Marine International’s Samoa Tuna Processing facility, located in Atu’u, American Samoa.
The agreement, finalized on 25 May, will allow StarKist – owned by South Korea’s Dongwon Enterprise – to utilize the facility. The STP was closed in late 2016 after the USD 70 million (EUR 59.5 million) plant failed to meet expectations for Tri Marine.
"StarKist would like to thank Tri Marine and we look forward to our continued work together,” StarKist said in a release. “In addition, StarKist would like to thank Governor Moliga, his esteemed Administration, and the Fono for their support during this process.”
According to Joe Hamby, chief operations officer for Tri Marine, the lease comes under the agreement that StarKist will utilize the facility.
“I obviously can't speak for StarKist,” Hamby said. “What I can tell you is that ever since we stopped the processing operations at STP in January 2017, Tri Marine has been working to find a way to restart the tuna processing there and hire back the workers who had lost their jobs.”
The closure of the plant resulted in 800 layoffs at Tri Marine, and Hamby said the company has been working to restore those to the community.
“We therefore offered to sell STP to anyone who would commit to use it for processing tuna, or anything else thereby creating jobs,” he said. “In the end StarKist generously offered to lease STP and we agreed because we saw how combining the STP facilities with StarKist's was the best thing to do both in terms of generating and preserving employment and making the American Samoa tuna industry stronger.”
American Samoa has continued to struggle to compete with other manufacturing locations, where labor costs and other expenses are much lower. Chicken of the Sea, for example, shut down its Pago Pago location in 2010, costing the area 2,000 jobs.
StarKist acknowledges the challenges facing American Samoa, and plans to continue to work on addressing them.
“While this is positive news for StarKist Samoa’s operations, it continues to be difficult for American Samoa to compete with other manufacturing locations where labor costs and other expenses are substantially lower and subsidized,” StarKist said in its release. “StarKist will continue to work with government leaders and local business to address critical issues that are impacting StarKist’s business in American Samoa.”
StarKist did not give details on its planned use for the facility or how many jobs will be generated.
