The owner of the Filipino company that broke ground in January for a food processing plant Mr. Anthony Bernardo is in the territory this week.
Since he arrived Monday night, the owner of AVM Bernardo Engineering has been holding meetings with ASG officials including the Governor’s Office and Department of commerce.
Director of Commerce Keniseli Lafaele said a statement about Mr. Bernardo’s visit should be coming out this afternoon.
The AVM plant is to be built near the Public Works compound in Tafuna and according to the company’s plan the factory would produce food and drink products both for export and the local market.
The first line of food items which the company was targeting was fish based products.
The number of jobs promised was 700 .
Mr. Bernardo’s visit comes closely after the announcement by Tri Marine that it is suspending canning operations at Samoa Tuna Processors beginning December 11.
Incidentally, the closure of the Samoa Packing Plant which Samoa Tuna Processing replaced, is what brought the Filipino businessman to the territory for the first time.
Bernardo has said in previous interviews with KHJ News that he was interested in making use of the plant for food processing. However he said there was no interest from then Governor Togiola Tulafono.
At the groundbreaking of the AVM plant on January 22 , Governor Lolo paid tribute to the persistence of Mr. Bernardo and said this development is very much needed now when the fishing industry is in limbo
