| Shanghai is the city which has the first ice plant in China. In late Qing, ice was widely used to keep the freshness of aquatic products. The expansion of ice plants in Shanghai drove the development of chilled food and aquatic products. From 1930 s when the first ice plant manufacturing ice with machinery was set up in Shanghai, to the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, ice plants became a booming industry. During the Second World War, the development of the ice plants were severely damaged and immersed in depression. After the war, the peace brings a new development for ice plants. During the few decades, artificial ice replaced natural ice step by step. At first, artificial ice was created to preserve the freshness of aquatic products with natural ice, then it was such widely used that it gradually took place of natural ice in the Japanese colonial period. Later in the post-war years, natural ice reoccupied the ice market.Ice is closely related to iced aquatic products. The production of ice affects the number of iced aquatic products. Iced aquatic products in Shanghai were mainly transported in the three forms, fishing vessels, fishing boat and ice fishing barrel. The products were purchased by fish firms or fish markets for selling to the customers on stalls. In the early 1930 s, as a result of the booming of ice plants, iced aquatic products held more than 50% in the whole aquatic product market. In the depression, the consumption of fish, had a rise rather than a reduction. In this time, Japan sold a lot of its fish to China and monopolized the fish markets of Shanghai. After the Second World War, with the support of the UN, the fishing industry of China recovered toa level almost the same with the prewar booming period. But due to the currency inflation, the quantity of ice was not sufficient enough to satisfy the need of iced aquatic products, which led to the increase of the cost of iced aquatic products. Therefore the demand of dried salted fish had a slight rise. |
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