StarKist Samoa does not anticipate an interruption in its tuna loin production due to the shutdown of a plant in the Marshall Islands, because StarKist has other suppliers, according to the company’s general manager, Phil Thirkell.
The PMOP tuna loining factory in Majuro, Marshall Islands has been closed for a month now due to a financial crisis and faces default on a bank loan, said journalist Giff Johnson in a message from Majuro.
Bank of the Marshall Islands’ president Patrick Chen is quoted by the Marshall Islands Journal newspaper saying that PMOP has until Oct. 6 to resolve the problems or the bank will recall the loan.
And if the loan goes into default, the Marshall Island government's Marine Resources Authority (MIMRA) will be responsible for paying the loan back to the Bank of Marshall Islands, Chen said.
MIMRA provided a $2 million guarantee to the PMOP tuna plant in the late 1990s.
Johnson said there are currently about 930 tons of frozen skipjack at the PMOP plant freezer, not processed, valued at about $1 million. The fish is owned by Starkist, which has already paid purse seiners for this fish.
He said time is running out to process this fish and if it's not processed, it will have to be dumped because of regulations about how long fish can remain in a freezer before processing.
The PMOP tuna loining factory is owned by Philippines, Micronesia and Orient (PM&O) Line president Robert Colson and other foreign investors.
When asked for comments, Thirkell told that StarKist is trying to get confirmation from Colson of a restart date for the Majuro plant.
He said the fish are stored in a freezer so there is no product risk involved. “Starkist Samoa has other suppliers of frozen loins which we are currently processing and so there is no prospect of an interruption to the work schedule for our team members,†Thirkell said.
First opened in late 1999 and employing nearly 700 workers, the PMOP plant has been the largest private sector employer in Majuro. But the workforce has been laid off since the end of August and company officials had told the media there that they did not know when operations would resume.