ASG 400-acre cattle farm in Samoa could be fake news

By Lance Polu/

Apia, SAMOA – 13 March 2024 – Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa has no knowledge of an American Samoa Government 400-acre cattle farm in Togitogiga village in the Falealili District in Samoa.

Fiame was responding to the question raised by the Leader of the Opposition, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi during the discussion of the Parliamentary Committee Report on Foreign Affairs.

Tuilaepa said the issue has been publicized in an American Samoa Senate hearing and he wants to know the details of an agreement on the 400 acres and the people of Falealili also need to know.

Tala Nei in American Samoa reported that in a Senate hearing late last month, the Director of Agriculture Solia Mutini said the 400 acre farm currently has 20 cows and more cattle are expected to arrive from Australia in the future.

The Director told the House Agriculture Committee that the territory doesn’t have enough land for a large scale cattle farm, and the Samoa Government has provided the acreage necessary for this new development to ensure food security for the territory.

The media reported that the House representatives were not comfortable with the absence of proper documentation and that the Fono had not been made aware of the government’s plans for a cattle farm in Samoa.

In Parliament today, Prime Minister Fiame said that even though the issue was not in the Committees report, she said that that the short answer to the Opposition Leaders question was, “I don’t even know myself.”

She went on to suggest that it could have been fake news.

But Tuilaepa was quick to get up saying it was not fake news as he listened to the discussion in the American Samoa Senate hearing.

The Prime Minister explained that the only land exchange involves land at Moataa for an American Samoa Government office in Apia for land at Tafuna for the Samoan Government to build an office in the territory.

Fiame also clarified that since the exchange, further land had been extended close to the Pago Pago wharf for incoming Samoan cargo and the government is now looking at appropriate land in Apia in order to level off the land exchange made with American Samoa.