Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Tri Marine International negotiating to acquire former Chicken of the Sea plant

Posted at 07:12 on 30 July, 2010 UTC

The American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono has announced that Tri Marine International is negotiating to acquire Samoa Packing’s Chicken of the Sea’s tuna plant in Atu’u.

In a statment, Tongiola says the purchase agreement with COS is conditional on Tri Marine securing a long term ground lease and other agreements with the Government.

Samoa Packing closed last September putting more than 2000 people out of jobs.

Joe Hamby from Tri Marine International, says many details are to be finalized but the company is looking forward to concluding a deal that allows it to resume tuna processing operations at the former COS Samoa Packing facility.

Tri Marine has fishing boats based in American Samoa and the company is interested in the long term viability of the territory’s tuna processing industry.