In our story, “Tuilaepa skeptical, yet hopeful about loin plant offer from Bumble Bee”, published in Apr. 28 (Monday) edition, we reported that Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi said in his weekly radio program aired on government radio 2AP last week Thursday the following: “…after the fish are processed here in Samoa, it will be taken to American Samoa which does not have to comply with all the red tape for the canning process, and exported to markets in the mainland…”

Samoa News has been told by an insider to the Bumble Bee and Samoa fish processing deal that the Prime Minister is incorrect.

Instead, the fish will be processed into loins, and shipped to California — to a Bumble Bee owned canning factory there. The insider noted: StarKist and Tri Marine are competitors of Bumble Bee and the deal is a Bumble Bee investment.

Samoa News also points out this is the same as what Chicken of the Sea (COS) is doing— processing fish to loins using cheap labor and then shipping the loins to the US state of Georgia for canning. It was the major reason COS shut its cannery operations down in American Samoa — it went to Thailand for “cheap” labor.

It should further be noted that Bumble Bee and COS were among the fishery companies that pushed to have the US federally funded school lunch program tuna packaging requirement lowered from the “100% fish caught and processed by American vessels and canneries.” The attempt failed, and currently, American Samoa remains as the only US territory with canneries and therefore able to meet this requirement.