China watch: it's no Shanghai surprise that frozens are big time in Metropolis.

The city's streets always stir before dawn, well ahead of the 6 AM television broadcasts that deliver morning newsbites to relatively late risers still having breadfast. Outside, the pavement is already pulsating with motor vehicle traffic and the incessant wake-up calls of cars beeping and bicycle bells ringing.

But there are two other distinct sounds which clearly earmark the identity of this sprawling, 2,355-square-mile urban renewal project: the bass beat of ships' fog horns piercing still-dark waterways, and the seemingly non-stop rhythmic buzz of jack-hammering construction crews busily tearing down the old and building up the new on virtually ever corner.

This can only be Shanghai, an agglomerated home for 13.4 million people that is in an ongoing state of physical and societal remodeling. The greater metropolitan region of eastern China's premiere crossroads of commerce -- which incorporates Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, as well as the Yangtze River estuary -- is in the throes of a monumental budding boom. The future is literally being cemented now, as millions of cubic meters of concrete are pouring and new apartment buildings and offices are soaring. After decades of being in limbo, modem housing and commercial infrastructure is going up like there is no tomorrow.

Shanghai, which translates from Chinese as "up from the sea," is riding atop a high tide of economic progress that is reshaping much of the nation's coastal landscape. A vigorous "can do" attitude stiffens the backbone and brawn driving rapid modernization. Heavy infusions of venture capital from offshore investors help too.

The 1930s-era Western-style highrises on the famous Bund along the Huangpu River frame up as quaint frontage for the gleaming skyscrapers of recent vintage. As foreign banks and commercial houses return to what before 1949 was the international concession quarter just south of the Wusong River -- and pay premium rents for the privilege -- casting a long shadow just across the river is the tallest manmade structure in the PRC: the cloud-spiking Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Only recently opened for business, it is symbolic of Shanghai's bold new era.

The push of progress flows on both sides now. Perhaps the surge is currently greater in the rapidly growing, high-voltage Pudong New Area. Little more than a backwater between the Huangpu and Yangtze Rivers a decade ago, its 522 square kilometers are ground zero for today's real estate boom and landprice squeeze ignited by the official designation of four special zones for trade, export processing, financial services and high technology.

Including such multinational heavyweights as DuPont, Caltex and BASF, during the past five years more than 1,000 foreign firms are said to have invested in excess of $5 billion to set up operations on the triangular tract that approximates Singapore in size. Saying this is only the beginning, promoters anticipate $50 billion in further development over the next 20 years. And they expect that tens of billions of ancillary dollars will be pumped into the economy in the process.

Meanwhile, a stone's throw away back in the congestion of "Old Shanghai," there is no shortage of financial power illuminating the neon rainbow that overlooks the wide waterfront boulevard at night. The electronic billboards blink the subliminal messages of French cognac, Japanese consumer goods and the iconoclastic Marlboro Man of America's Old West. Ironically standing tall amidst this quasi-capitalistic socialist market economy of the New East, poised high upon a pedestal in the square named in his honor, is the imposing statue of the city's first mayor following the Communist Revolution. One wonders if a reincarnated Chen Yi would recognize these contemporary surroundings.

More than anything else, the park-like promenade on the Bund is a place to do just that: promenade. It's hard to imagine that this vibrant location, once off-limits to Chinese, was the exclusive walking ground of Western and Japanese colonial powers during the first half of this century. Now the citizens of modem China confidently strut their stuff. Young people in particular show off colorful fashions of the now generation. They are enjoying the best of times.

Hem lines and cuts of cloth, like dynasties, come and go. One taste that always stays in style, though, is eating. And nowadays more foreign flavors are finding favor among the masses. So it should come as no Shanghai surprise that the most fashionable of accessories clutched in the hands of folks strolling leisurely on the Bund is not a leather-made designer purse or Discman CD player. These days it's more apt to be an upscale American-style ice cream cone or a European-looking crushed-fruit stick.

Ice cream and frozen novelty manufacturers sold just about all they could chum out to eagerly-awaiting customers of all ages this past summer. Indeed, the sweet treat sector is indicative of an overall frozen food business that is expanding across the board. To learn more about how well are going, Quick Frozen Foods International magazine recently surveyed the city and its immediate environs first-hand. Some of the findings follow.

"It would not be overstating it to say that the frozen food business is on the threshold of exploding. Already growing at a steady pace, in three to five years frozen consumer products will be much more popular," said Lu Xiang-Hua, secretary general of the 104-member Shanghai Frozen Food Association.

Mr. Lu told QFFI that non-ice cream frozen food volume reached 85,000 tons in 1994. That equates to per capita consumption of 6 kilos, which is the highest in the PRC. While admittedly low in comparison with foreign countries that have well developed frozen food markets [such as the USA (53kg), Denmark (46.4kg), UK (39.6kg), Germany (23.1kg) and Japan (14.6kg)], it represents an astounding four-fold increase since 1990.

Category sales were broken out as follows: poultry parts and portions, 40,000 tons; assorted quick frozen and instant food products, 20,000 tons; packaged meats, 20,000 tons; seafood and aquatic items, 4,000 tons; vegetables, 1,000 tons.

"I am confident that the quick frozen food sector alone will rise to 40,000 tons per annum within the next three years and reach 50,000 tons in five years, as more largescale industrial factories come on line," the secretary general told QFFI. "But we will have to develop more products with rice ingredients."

There are over 100 frozen food processors in the Shanghai area, though only five or six presently operate with any kind of sophisticated IQF capability, pointed out Mr. Lu. "So one might say that, for the moment, the industry is replete with slowfrozen food makers intent on speeding things up. Meanwhile, on the ice cream front, at least 40 companies are actively engaged."

In a country where people tend to be passionate about freshly-prepared cuisine, why is Mr. Lu, a 30-year-veteran of China's food industry, so optimistic about the future of frozens?

"More households are dual-income-producing now, which of course means less time is available for cooking at home," he explained. "But it is the evolution of Western-style retail stores is giving frozen food products more visibility, and which win result in sales climbing to much higher levels. There are now over 300 supermarkets in Shanghai. What's more, by regulation any new stores that open up must be equipped with freezer cabinets."

In addition to heading up the active regional frozen food association, Mr. Lu serves as chief engineer for the Shanghai Food Group. Comprised of more than 127 enterprises employing 18,000 people, its assets are valued at RMB 1,450 million (US$ 179.3 million). The multi-faceted agri-business conglomerate is engaged in everything from pig slaughtering and poultry raising to packaging value-added meat and vegetable-based frozen food products, to running the nation's largest cold storage warehouse. It also operates 10 supermarkets and a number of restaurants.

One store, a relatively small unit doing business next to the San Wei Hotel [yet another of the diversified Group's investments] on Dong Da Ming Road, especially caters to the convenience of increasingly busy local residents. Its double-aisle of wide-island-style frozen food merchandisers contain a variety of products ranging from Chinese dumplings and spring rolls to packaged meat and chicken portions. Needless to say, a good deal of the listings are produced by the Shanghai Food Group.

Across town the company operates a larger supermarket that would roughly equate to conventional store formats in the USA or Europe. Interestingly, competing vendors of fresh vegetables and hot fast foods ply their trade right outside the premises on the sidewalk and in the street. Inside, the well-stocked frozen food department features colorful packs of Shanghai Wonton, assorted seafood, chicken parts, pork, and even a jumbo (club store-like) pack of Goody brand meat- and vegetable-flued rice bars.

"In China most frozen food purchased at the retail level is for near-term consumption, as home freezer space is quite limited," said Zhou Xiao Ming, vice manager of the Shanghai Food Group's management office.

"But this will change in the near future," he predicted. "Today, thanks to rising having standards, people are buying residential air conditioners for the first time. Tomorrow we hope they will boost home freezer capacity and stock up on frozen foods and ice cream to consume on impulse and as regular meal components."

In the meantime, production of supermarket freezer cases is accelerating throughout the country. A number of foreign joint ventures are leading the way with advanced technological know-how. Japanese giant Sanyo is among them, having penetrated the market through a manufacturing and distribution partnership with Dalian Refrigeration Co.

Lyoyang Refrigeration struck a licensing and technology transfer agreement way back in 1985 with Tyler Refrigeration Corp. of the USA to manufacture food display cases and walk-in coolers. The deal has reportedly helped the Henan-based company dominate the case market during the past decade.

Last December Luoyang solidified its Sino-American partnership by entering into a 50-year-period joint venture with Saint Louis, Missouri-headquartered Hussmann Corp., the world's largest producer of display cases for stores. An initial investment of US$ 10 million was made.

In January Richard Gilbert transferred to China from the United States to assume the duties of general manager. He oversees the output of some 33 models of merchandisers, refrigeration systems and walk-in coolers that are built under the Leuleng-Hussmann brand name for sale both in China and abroad.

"We have great expectations for our line, which currently includes meat deli, dairy and produce cases as well as frozen food cabinets," Mr. Gilbert told this magazine's editor from his stand at the China Refrigeration Exhibition in Beijing during May. "The food distribution business is developing quickly throughout the country, and we're here to contribute our part to the modernization effort."

Modernization is a word repeated like a mantra in the PRC where, indeed, the "Four Modernizations" program proved to be the successful-centerpiece of patriarch Deng Xiaoping's market reforms that have jump-started China's formerly puttering economy.

The modernization movement is alive and well in Shanghai's food industry. So much so that this year the municipal government began phasing in new regulations for food processing and distribution. "Standards are being drawn up which win force manufacturers to upgrade their production methods and equipment," said Lu Xiang-Hua.

Until recently the means of production, quality of ingredients used and product claims made have largely been at the whim of licensed, state-run food makers that often enjoyed jurisdictional monopoly status. Now, with the growing presence of sophisticated foreign-funded joint ventures, stricter quality control measures are being introduced. And since more production from such enterprises is being sold domestically [unlike in the past, when export-oriented production was the norm], the need for enhanced manufacturing practices is apparent to all companies wishing to prosper in a progressively competitive marketplace.

Not surprisingly, the Shanghai Food Group is in the forefront of the drive toward modernization among state-run firm. But then, gearing up operations and revamping inefficient systems is nothing new for this outfit. Its pork slaughtering and processing units -- whose 200,000 tons of annual production supplies 70% of the regional market -- were among the first of their kind in the PRC to elevate production standards to world-class standards. That was done a decade ago!

"Our three cutting and deboning lines, in addition to a lot of other capital equipment, were imported from Denmark for two reasons: they rank among the best that money can buy, and the money to buy them with was financed by the Danish government at very favorable terms," explained Fang Da Ming, deputy general manager of Shanghai Longhua Foodstuff Co.

The 8,434-square-meter meat processing complex in southwest Shanghai is capable of slaughtering up to 8,000 pigs per day on four lines operating two shifts, though typical throughput is half that. About 3,000 tons of cooked pork products are packed annually, most under the Dragon Tower brand. They range from deep-fried breaded pork shank and frozen barbecue ribs to Chinese- and Western-style sausages, boiled ham and bacon. Daily output is about 10 tons, most of which is vacuum-packed in non-frozen form.

The company employs some 1,700 people. Among foreign-made equipment installed at the plant are Wolfking hamburger makers, Multivac R-5100 smallpack portioning machines, Chub sausage packaging equipment from the USA, plus processing lines supplied by Koppens of Holland and Formac Food Machinery Co. of Denmark.

"The Western-style meats are being produced for a joint venture company that supplies four-star hotels and caterers at the Shanghai Airport," noted Mr. Fang.

By this autumn, the factory's expanded frozen meat packing section is expected to be up and running with a dedicated line for meat-filled dumpling items and fried specialties. "Surveys show that the frozen food market is set to grow dramatically, so we are investing in greater capacity now to be ready for it," noted Mr. Fang.

The dumpling line is being outfitted exclusively with Chinese-made equipment procured from Shang Yu Machinery Works in Zhejiang province. Most packaging machinery and materials are sourced from within the Group, with the exception of certain plate makers brought in from Japan.

A 5,000-ton capacity refrigerated warehouse is on the grounds to store both raw materials and finished products. Keeping things rolling is a fleet of 70 trucks.

Prospects for sales, which Wt RMB 206 million (US$ 25.5 million) in 1994, are expected to rise this year. In addition to increased revenues generated from the frozen food sector, movement of Happiness label meats should be strong. The brand was acquired from a center city factory situated at a prime location. Shanghai's real estate boom made the parcel more valuable to develop than to retain as a base for making prize-winning sausages and pork chops.

Better to cash in now and turn dirt into gold while the crane (construction crane, that is) is high in the sky.

Historically the Shanghai area, which is situated just 17 miles upstream from the mouth of the mighty Yangtze River, has been a wide door to China's vast interior. Today, municipal planners are working overtime to transform the region into an international hub for finance as well as manufacturing and trade. Their aim is to eclipse Hong Kong as a banking center by the year 2010, playing an increasingly larger role along the way in mobilizing domestic capital for the expansion of Chinese industry.

Continuing to grease this great leap forward, according to published reports, will be the priority access that qualified Shanghai enterprises receive in securing state investments and loans. hi addition, they stand to benefit from favorable policies designed to attract foreign investment. It has not gone unnoticed that President Jiang Zemin, a former Shanghai Communist Party leader, favors central government aid for developing the region's national conglomerates and multinational companies.

Along with the boom in investment in the area have come burgeoning costs of doing business -- especially for foreign companies subject to an unofficial dual-price system. Average annual rents that non-Chinese are now paying for prestigious office space in Shanghai have shot up to almost $1,000 per square meter, according to a survey conducted by Jones Lang Wootton. In Asia, only Tokyo and Hong High are higher in price.

Writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review last year, correspondent Henny Sender quoted Shanghai municipal planning commission chairman Hua Jianmin as saying: "We know it is expensive here, but that is because the supply is small. After a second round of investment, the city will be built up and the price will come down; it does reflect the market. We do not advocate the high price of land."

It is not only land that is relatively expensive; salaries have also risen markedly. According to figures crunched by the Bank of Tokyo in Shanghai, factory wages doubled last year to more than RMB 700 (US$ 86) a month. While this is low compared to compensation in the West, it is more than double the $35 equivalent that urban industrial workers are paid in Vietnam -- a country that is competing head-on with the PRC for outside investment.

Of course, most foreign companies successfully serving in China recognize advantages of producing domestically. And food companies particularly keen on the huge and growing Shanghai market are wise to plan accordingly. About 1.1 million people have streamed into "go-go" Pudong during the past five years. Many of them are economic migrants who have left dim prospects in the countryside in search of a better life.

An airport now on the drawing board for Pudong will upon completion in about five years, greatly extend the area's direct global reach. The modernization of Shanghai's docks will give the city's commercial infrastructure another boost. Demand for warehouse space is expected to skyrocket in the near term as a good deal of inbound cargo currently unloaded in Hong Kong and later trucked to the southeast will likely be shipped directly to Shanghai.

Linked together by two worldclass suspension bridges [a third is on the way, as is a modem subway system], in addition to a pair of tunnels and 20 ferry lines, the Shanghai-Pudong powerhouse has been likened to a "dragon head" guiding the Yangtze River Delta's expanding economy. Not surprisingly, the Shanghai Food Group is well positioned to capitalize on the stepped up traffic being generated along the waterfront. It has joined in on the development of Pudong on one side and runs a long-established complex of cold stores on the other.

Not far from the Yangpu Bridge in the 19-square-kilometer Shanghai Jinqiao Export Processing Zone are six brand-new seven-story buildings occupying a combined area of 30,000 square meters. Owned by the Group, each structure features office and factory floor space. One of the tenants, Hughes Network Systems of the USA, has deployed a satellite communications dish on the grounds behind a row of recently planted shrubbery. Now there's a real sign that the times are a-changin'in China.

About 500% of the quarters -- parts of which were being given finishing touches by workmen during this writer's tour -- are vacant. Fifty-year leases are available, with rents averaging US$ 320 per square meter.

The landlord has expressed interest in finding a joint venture partner to operate an export-oriented food production plant on the premises or at another location in the zone yet to be developed. It was pointed out that among the special incentives that foreign occupants may enjoy are muti-year profit tax abatements and exemptions from import and export customers duties"

China FoodTech '95 Show

Coming Soon to Beijing

China Foodtech '95 will be held Nov. 2-7 at the International Exhibition Centre in Beijing. Known formally as the International Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Exhibition, this is the fourth running of the biennial show.

According to the organizer, more than 600 leading Chinese manufacturers of food processing equipment and packaging machinery will occupy about 5,000 square meters of the hall. A strong foreign presence is also anticipated, as companies from the USA, Europe, Japan, Korea and Canada will reportedly be well represented.

Bonus copies of Quick Frozen Foods International magazine, as well as its Chinese language sister publication, Modern Food Manufacturing and Marketing, will be distributed at the show.

Location, Location, Location!

Strategically situated at a busy junction of ship, rail and truck traffic off Hai Tong Road is Shanghai Wu Jing Cold Storage's complex of four seven-story refrigerated warehouses. In little more than a decade the operation has risen from a green field to become the largest distribution hub for temperature-sensitive foodstuffs in China.

Some 230,000 cubic meters of space are dedicated to frozen products, which are kept at between -20[degrees] and -25[degrees]C. An additional 80,000 cubes are reserved for chilled items. Combined, that's enough room to accommodate 53,000 tons of perishables -- about 80% of which is pork and poultry processed by fellow companies of the Shanghai Food Group.

Still, with more than 200 customers using the facility, a lively public warehousing operation is run there. The non-Group customer list includes area supermarkets as well as McDonald's and Goody Foods. Indeed, the business of storing value-added frozen products and ice cream is growing.

This is the heart of the Group's cold storage network, which can handle up to 130,000 tons. Not far away, near Nanpu Bridge, is a single unit that can take 13,000 tons. While the average rate of occupancy exceeds 70% at the flagship facility, at the time of Quick Frozen Foods International's early-summer tour the warehouses were bulging at full capacity.

"Our location is prime for unloading incoming commodities," said vice manager Wang Ye as she pointed to deep-water dock facilities capable of handling 10,000-ton vessels, and an exclusive set of three tracks for freight trains running between the cold stores. "From here there is not only direct access to the sea, but also river and rail gateways to the country's interior."

The Shanghai Wu Jing workforce numbers 340. In addition to offering warehouse distribution services, space for partner projects is also let. Two such tenants are currently on site, the Shanghai-Nichirei Foods Co. Ltd. and a Hong Hong-financed joint venture air condition engineering firm.

"The arrangement with Nichirei of Japan has been a success from the start six years ago," said Ms. Wang. "Frozen convenience foods including dumplings, shaomai, spring rolls and shrimp-based specialties are produced. Up until now all output has been exported to Japan. But with demand for such products rising fast in China, the processing line is being expanded to pack some items for the domestic market."

Poultry Flies High

There was a time -- not very long ago -- when to have a "chicken in every pot" Chinese-style first called for consumers to negotiate for a live clucker at the local farmers' market. Once a bargain was struck, the subsequent value-added services one could expect from street stall retailers seldom amounted to much more than de-heading and bleeding the bird for the convenience of transporting it home. It was usually up to the buyer to personally pluck the feathers and cut the meat up for cool".

In contemporary urban China, such scenarios are exceptions to the rule these days. Indeed, a lot has changed on the national poultry cuisine scene, where Kentucky Fried Chicken and a flock of home-grown look-alikes have pecked their way to popularity among the masses.

As a result, many industrial producers have fine-tuned their breeding programs. Pampered, rice-fed chickens are raised to a weight of two kilos before being slaughtered and portioned to the specifications of fast food restaurants. Even retail shops are stocking the Western-style cuts in greater quantities, shunning the worm-eating birds that independently scratch out a living before meeting the ax. Still, most older-generation Chinese insist that the leaner, range-roving chickens are tastier to eat.

Well outside of city limits, in the suburbs of Nanhid County, is Shanghai Poultry Portioning and Packaging Co. One of two major poultry plants operated by the Shanghai Food Group, four million chickens are processed there annually. The other facility, an export-only joint venture with Japanese partners, has twice as much capacity. Total production system-wide amounts to 100,000 tons annually, of which just under one-third is shipped to Japan and Southeast Asia.

Up to 3,000 birds per hour can be put through the domestic market factory, a former ice cream plant and cold store which was refurbished for chicken slaughtering and packing three years ago. A 24-hour slow freezing process puts a daily cap on output at about 36 tons for now, as IQF equipment has not yet been installed. But demand is rising, and a new line should be in place to meet it by the end of 1995.

"Almost all of our production feeds the Shanghai fast food market, with fully one-third destined for Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets," said Zhu Fagen, director. "Some goes to supermarkets.

Raw materials arrive from four nearby farming bases, which produce eggs and baby chicks for the Group as well as fun-grown chickens. The plant packs a variety of pre-portioned frozen parts, including broiler breasts and fillets, drumsticks, wings and whole legs.

About 70 of the company's 350-person staff work on the factory floor, according to Mr. Zhu. The operation is a mix of labor-intensity and automation. Crews of highly-skilled cutters adroitly portion the birds by hand in advance of machine packaging. Imported Targa film wrapping equipment from Italy tray-packs 2,000 units of supermarket-bound chicken fillets or other presentations per hour.

The Group turns out a number of additional frozen poultry items at different locations, such as whole Shanghai white and Peking duck, as well as duck meat rolls, chests and legs. For those with a taste for wild game, frozen sparrows are available in counts of 100-dozen per carton.

Dumplings, Nanxiang Style

While the newest sensation on the Chinese frozen dim sum front is the Goody Foods Co. Taiwan-Shanghai connection [its colorful product line dominates supermarket cabinets in the region], the oldest success story is that of Shanghai Nanxiang Frozen Food Co., Ltd. It began utilizing freezing technology 15 years ago at a small plant in suburban Jia District with a staff of 30. Its piece de resistance -- then and now -- is Nanxiang pork-filled steam dumplings. The award-winning product is made traditionally, without deviating from specific ingredients called for in a 200-year-old recipe.

In 1987 output geared up markedly, and three years later a joint venture was established with a Hong Kong concern to produce an assortment of items for export to that territory as well as to Japan and Australia. An investment of US$ 2.5 million in new equipment helped boost annual capacity to 3,000 tons, and today 311 people are on the job.

A product line of more than 20 listings, available in standard-size 100g and 200g retail packs or in bulk quantities for foodservice operators, runs the gamut of Chinese prepared snack treats, appetizers and soup stock. Among the listings are: fried wonton, peach-shaped longevity dumplings, sesame-topped fried dough, leaf-shaped baozi, plus sweet bean- and vegetable and mushroom-filled steam buns.

Production remains largely non-automated, though, with deft-fingered women gently preparing delicacies and individually placing them in molded containers prior to freezing. Dressed from head to toe in white outfits that closely resemble uniforms worn in hospitals by surgeons, they work in hygienically-sealed rooms that are strictly off-limits to unessential personnel.

"Our quality-minded Japanese customers prefer hand-made products," said Wang Jian Hua, general manager. "But perhaps in the future we will introduce high-speed equipment to fulfill the requirements of others."

Meanwhile, as a quasi-free market system steadfastly evolves for consumers in China, many of those literally on the throttle of production continue to conduct business the old-fashioned way. "Aside from the joint ventures, orders come through from state-run export trading companies and we fill them," explained Mr. Wang. "We are not able to negotiate directly with end-users. But maybe one day this will be allowed, at which time we can cut out the middleman and maximize our profits."

Can it be, after all, that socialism is a necessary step between capitalism and capitalism? Roll over Karl Marx, and tell comrade Engels the news!

An Asparagus `Tip' from Frigoscandia

Shandong Foodstuffs I&E Corp. wanted to tap the premium export market for whole green asparagus. But that was easier said than done.

To command a premium price, whole green asparagus must be straight on the plate. If it's bent or irregularly shaped, it ends up being cut into smaller pieces and sold at a reduced price as "cut asparagus."

The deft fingers of the young women working at the Shandong infeed line could make sure the asparagus wasn't bent before it went into the freezer. But to make sure the product wasn't bent in the freezing process itself, the company turned to Frigoscandia.

With the GyroCompact[R] P42 spiral freezer, a channeled vertical airflow presses each piece gently against the belt, holding it there until it is properly frozen. Within two years of the first installation, Shandong Foodstuffs had purchased two more P42 spirals.

Regional Trade Group

Promotes Frozen Foods

At six kilos per capita annually, Shanghai leads China in frozen food consumption. One reason that it is second to none nationally has something to do with the promotional efforts put forth by the Shanghai Frozen Food Association, which is apparently the first and only such organization of its kind in the PRC.

SFFA's dues-paying membership currently stands at 104, according to Lu Xiang-Hua, secretary general. The roster includes frozen food and ice cream production companies, industrial equipment manufacturers, microwave oven appliance makers, plus related food technology and science units.

Among the Association's activities are research and information gathering, providing technical education, and establishing food processing and handling standards. Products in the marketplace which conform with recommended practices may carry SFFA-sanctioned marks on external packaging, which are seen as quality stamps of approval by consumers.

The Association strives to present frozen foods in a positive light. A major thrust of this ongoing campaign culminates each year on Jan. 18 when the Shanghai Frozen Food Festival is held. On that date manufacturers pool their resources to distribute literature and sample products among retailers and end-users.

More information about the SFFA's mission and plans for cooperation with international parties is available by contacting Secretary General Lu at 147 Sichuan-Zhong St., Shanghai, China 200002.