Bumble Bee Foods’ plans to establish a loining plant in Matautu have been further delayed until the sale of their California-based company is completed.Mid way through 2014 when the project was revealed by Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, he said the development would provide 1,000 jobs for locals.The project was initially expected to begin operation at the beginning of this year.However despite the delay caused by the sale process of Bumble Bee by buyer Thai Union, Tuilaepa remains optimistic that the original plans will resume once the takeover has been signed off.“There has been delay in the Bumble Bee plan. It was supposed to start at the beginning of this year,” Tuilaepa told the media.“At the conclusion of discussions about the project in Samoa, it was announced that a company from Thailand (Thai Union) has bought it (Bumble Bee).“So the matter has been dropped until paperwork related to the new takeover is completed.“Then plans will proceed,” he said.Thai Union Frozen Products has a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood company – Bumble Bee Foods. The $1.51 billion purchase is set to marry two of the most recognized seafood brands in the United States -- San Diego-based Bumble Bee and Thai Union-owned Chicken of the Sea.The Chief Executive Officer of Bumble Bee, Chris Lischewski told Undercurrent news the plans were to break ground for the plant for pre-cooked loins and frozen tuna products in Apia.“We continue to be excited about the new opportunity we have to develop tuna processing in Samoa. We continue to finalise our due diligence and will be reviewing the project with Thai Union early in the New Year (2015),” Lischewski told Undercurrent.“Our objective is to commence operations during the fourth quarter of 2015,” he said, not offering comment on the reported sale talks for the Lion Capital-owned company.Meanwhile several different interests are closely watching the Bumble Bee plant plans and the Memorandum of Understanding for the plant in Samoa.In early December 2014, a top executive with Tri Marine International, the owners of American Samoa’s new cannery, Samoa Tuna Processors, said he was keeping an eye on Bumble Bee’s plans for Samoa.Government sources in Apia say a review of the Bumble Bee project by fisheries and environmental officials is in progress, though not at the pace the cannery would like, according to Radio New Zealand.The chief operating officer of Tri Marine, Joe Hamby, said the Bumble Bee plant situation poses a concern for their company.With another plant in Apia, many of the workers that come from Samoa to work in the American Samoa plants of Starkist and now Tri Marine, could stay on their own island by preference, one tuna sector source told Undercurrent.“That is pretty well all of the labor.”