Chinese fishing firm lands tuna for American Samoa canners

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A leading Chinese fishing company is offloading tuna catches in American Samoa in order to reduce the costs of transporting it back to China.

The ‘Ping Tai Rong Cheng 2’ vessel called last month at American Samoa to unload tuna catches, according to an executive at the company that owns the vessel, Ping Tai Rong Ocean Fishery Co. The company has long served the EU market and calling at American Samoa “saves our transport costs,” according to the executive. 

“There is a big cannery business locally [in American Samoa] but our vessels face really strict inspections of vessels sanitary conditions and crew conditions,” the executive added.

Ping Tai Rong Ocean Fishery Co – which aims for an IPO on one of China’s two main stock exchanges (Shanghai and Shenzhen) - now has 26 long liners and two reefers operating in international waters. 

Read more at Seafood Source