Dried fish is common throughout South and South-East Asia, constituting between one-quarter and one-third of fish consumed in countries in this region.
While sun-dried fish might be seen as “typical”, there are also many other ways of preserving fish — often involving the same value chains.
In the broadest possible terms, our project investigates any fish product that is neither fresh nor frozen.
This includes salted, dried, fermented, and pickled fish, and possibly even fish sauce.
The main feature of all these products is their portability: there is no need for a cold chain, so the food becomes less expensive to store and transport, and therefore more accessible to consumers in remote or less affluent places.
Fish meal, often used as poultry feed, is another form of dried fish product that may make use of low-grade “trash fish”.
