Global literature review - History and change

As the emergence of dried and fermented fish generally predates historical records, efforts to describe the origins of dried fish must rely on the interpretation of archaeological, ecological, and other contextual evidence. Archaeological studies have demonstrated the existence of salt-making sites for fermented fish production in Thailand during the Iron Age [1] and widespread salted fish processing in European antiquity [2]. Prehistoric butchery techniques have also been studied as a means of identifying fish prepared for drying [3]. Van Neer and colleagues have reported on fish bone assemblages indicating the presence of sun-dried, salted, and pickled fish at Roman sites located in Egypt [4]. Ruddle and Ishige's important cultural ecology of fermented fish convincingly proposes a direct link between environmental conditions and the choice of fish preservation technologies in South-East Asia [5].

While many studies of contemporary dried fish value chains identify recent or ongoing economic, institutional, and technological changes, pure historical research on dried fish is rare. Reeves et al. provide a notable example of a colonial history approach to dried fish, describing how official Fish-Curing Yards came to be established in parts of India in the 1870s, as a mechanism to exempt fish processors from the colonial Salt Tax. These curing yards, which survived well into the twentieth century [6], did not entirely benefit fishers as they supported the emergence of consolidated fish curer/traders who frequently entered bonded arrangements with their suppliers. The theme of state-mediated shifts in economic power, typically away from fishers and primary producers toward intermediaries, is mirrored in more recent historical accounts. These include the Canadian Saltfish Corporation, which aimed to break the fish plant monopoly in Newfoundland but ultimately reduced the power of fishers [7]; and Cambodia's “community fisheries”, which disrupted traditional systems of barter among farming and fishing communities surrounding Tonle Sap Lake, giving rise to a monetized economy in which middlemen were able to set the terms of exchange [8].

Some research on contemporary fish processing has highlighted the role of natural disasters and environmental change in shaping value chains. In Sri Lanka, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami severely disrupted the fishing economy, leading to a decline in both domestic production and imports of fish, but simultaneously to an increase in demand for canned and dried fish [9]. In Namibia, the onset of precipitation in 2008-2010 caused the 300 km2 Lake Liambezi to fill up after having remained dry for 22 years, spurring the emergence of a new inland fishery that supplied distant consumers - including mine labourers in the DRC - with large volumes of dried fish [10].

Some economic studies have identified the impact of market “externalities” - including both macroeconomic and governance changes - on local fish processing. Work by Lindkvist and colleagues [11] has thus explored recent changes in European value chains, reflecting the combined impacts of regional food heritage (taste); the increased participation of women in the workforce, contributing to demand for semi-processed foods that reduce the time involved in meal preparation; and new industrial technologies, notably brine injection.

Intersecting with the theme of culture and identity, various case studies illustrate how dried and fermented fish products are situated within cultural movements that are produced by, but also oppose, global flows. Thus the Portuguese national dish bacalhau (salt cod) would be unthinkable without colonial connections to Newfoundland, which allowed cod - among other ingredients linked to conquest - to enter the Portuguese diet in the 16th century [12]. Historical studies on Newfoundland and Labrador fishing communities [13], meanwhile, provide a clear indication of how global trade relations ultimately shaped both the establishment of isolated coastal communities and the emergence of a unique culture within them. In Japan, katsuobushi (smoke-dried shipjack tuna), whose name auspiciously means “victory-bringing fish”, is entangled with commercial, military, and Imperial history - its early spread being attributed, for example, to 11th-century Imperial policies that prohibited the consumption of meat to promote Buddhism [14]. Fermented fish has more recently become an important marker of localness and tradition in the Faroe Islands, drawing on associations with the Slow Food movement [15]. In Indonesia, Hayward and Mosse have argued that smoked tuna is a food heritage enabled by “modernity, urbanity, political instability and touristification” [16].