No Fish, No Production at StarKist Samoa

3304881

There’s no production at StarKist Samoa today. Employees have been given the day off because there’s apparently no fish to process and pack.

All this week, production tables at the Star Kist plant took turns shutting down.

KHJ News understands that the staggered shutdown will continue until the cannery gets sufficient fish supplies.

Spokesperson for StarKist, Michelle Faist said, “StarKist’s business model is highly dependent on the US flagged purse seine fleet making direct delivery of fish to our cannery.

“Without a reliable and reasonably priced fish supply, she said, their plant cannot operate efficiently.”

Many of the US tuna boats that deliver their catch to the canneries have been affected by the ban on fishing in high seas areas of the Eastern and Central Pacific and the sharp increase in license fees to fish in the Exclusive Economic Zones of Pacific island countries.

This at a time when the price of fish has dropped dramatically.

Several vessels have been idle since December awaiting a new fishing deal with Pacific Island Parties.

Some left to fish in the Eastern Tropical ocean which is farther from the territory and the local canneries.

A temporary tuna deal between the US and Pacific islands countries was struck over a week ago.

Faist explained that the cannery’s production delays this week are a result of an inconsistent fish supply.

She said with the tuna treaty in place their company expects fish supply to stabilize so that they can maintain regular production.

In the meantime, it was necessary to stagger some workers “to best accommodate our production needs.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,