The salt farm and the fishing industry of Bagan Si Api Api

Abstract

During the early years of the twentieth century, the town of Bagan Si Api Api at the mouth of the Rokan River on the east coast of Sumatra was one of the most important fishing ports in the world. The Chinese inhabitants of Bagan Si Ap exported massive amounts of dried fish, dried prawns, and the shrimp paste kno terasi to the Malay Peninsula and Java. Since fish, prawns, and shrimps spoil rapi once caught and exposed to the warm tropical air, virtually all of what the fisher the area caught had to undergo some process of curing before it could be shipped distant markets. Fish and prawns were cured by means of salting and drying, wh the shrimps used to make terasi were fermented after being mixed with salt. Th whole industry depended for its existence on vast qua