Marketing, preserying, and packaging 



Shrimp intended for local consuraption are taken by the fisher- 

 men usually to "middlemen." They pay the fishermen a small predetermined 

 rate and market the shrimp in the local market place.. In addition, hawkers 

 carry baskets of shrimp from door to door. If the shrimp are to be sent 

 to inland towns a short distance from the fishing grounds, they are usually 

 packed in such materials as newspapers, butter paper, or dried lotus 

 leaves and placed in cardboard containers or bamboo baskets. Shrimp in- 

 tended for shipment to greater distances (as from the Bombay area to New 

 Delhi) are usually packed between layers of ice, either whole or headed. 

 They are then shipped by rail or air. 



Cold-storage and refrigerate d-transport facilities are exceedingly 

 limited. Most of the shrimp shipped over greater distances, therefore, 

 are preserved by drying. Shrimp exported to overseas destinations are 

 either dried or frozen. 



Freezing 



Shrimp up to sizes weighing 30 to 35 to the pound are frozen 

 after heading, in blocks vieighing about 5 pounds. If they are going to 

 United States markets, they are, as a rule, cellophane-packed and loaded 

 into wooder; boxes for transportation in refrigerated freighters. Quick- 

 freezing plants for fish and shriir^j are located at Sasson Dock, Bombay 

 (a Government of India operation), Kozhikode, Mangalore, Cochin, and 

 Trivandrum. In general, such plants have quick-freezing capacities of 

 about 5 tons daily, ice-making capacities of 5 tons daily, and cold-storage 

 capacities of 20 to 100 tons. 



Drying, boiling, and smoking 



Most of the shrimp used for drying are dried by spreading out 

 in the sun and are marketed either shelled or unshelled. Recently some 

 of the shrimp sold in the dried form have been boiled before drying. The 

 shrimp are boiled in metal containers with just enough water to cover them. 

 After 2 or 3 days' drying, they are placed in burlap bags and threshed 

 with sticks. The pieces of shell are removed, and the dry meat is packed 

 in bags, mostly for export to Burma, Hong Kong, and Singapore. A semi- 

 drying process has been popularized by the Madras Fisheries Department. 

 The shrimp are boiled in 6-percent brine for about 2 minutes, and then 

 removed from the brine and shelled. Next they are placed in a saturated 

 salt solution for about 30 minutes. The shrimp are dried either in the 

 sun or by mechanical driers. In the Collair Lake area some prawns are 

 smoked. 



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