4 Apr 2011

President of Starkist says company committed to cannery in American Samoa

5:28 am on 4 April 2011

The new Chief Executive and President of StarKist has signalled that American Samoa is where StarKist belongs and it's where the cannery wants to be for another 48 years.

In Soo-Cho has been in American Samoa visiting the company's cannery and meeting with local officials.

Mr Cho says the company needs the help of the local government and the people to be able to survive in the global tuna market.

The challenges include wages, energy costs and freezer capacity.

But Mr Cho said Starkist was committed to future investment in the territory

"We will work towards bringing more vessel that creates other kind of jobs, we can sell bait, we can have more sellers coming in and spending more money here and and a lot of other things that come with it."

StarKist Samoa, which just a year ago was down to 1200 employees, has increased its workforce to 2,000.