A United States General Accountability Office report shows a steep decline in tuna exports from 2008.
Tuna exports from American Samoa to the US were valued at just under 600 million US dollars in 2008, but last year they had fallen to below 300 million.
The drop reflects the closure of Samoa Packing in 2009.
The report also acknowledges that the tuna canneries have provided many indirect benefits to other industries and the economy in American Samoa
The US General Accountability Office says operations planned in the short term by the company which acquired the closed Samoa Packing plant are more limited than those before the facility closed.
The company's officials told the Accountability Office about is plans to use the plant as a logistics and storage facility for handling fresh and potentially frozen fish and for the company's existing fleet in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
