ICES 2016 Proceedings Canned meat: A short history of the food canning industry in Eritrea (1913-1960s) Massimo Zaccaria University of Pavia, Italy zaccaria@unipv.it Figure 1: “Tin cans for the Christian troops”, in A. Vitali, L’opera dell’esercito (1885- 1943), in L’Italia in Africa, vol. I, Rome, Istituto Poligrafco dello Stato, 1960, p. 48. Abstract This article investigates the history of the canning industry in Eritrea from its inception, in 1913, up to the Sixties in order to highlight changes pro- duced in the country by the arrival of the frst industrial activities. Canned meat was the frst product to become a major export industry in Eritrea. During the First World War Eritrean meat greatly contributed to the sus- tainment of the Italian army, while in the 1950s Israel’s Tzena (rationing system) made extensive use of Kosher frozen and corned beef prepared in Asmara. The frst part of this article aims at providing a sketch of the history of the canning industry in Eritrea from its origins up to the 1960s. 1. Introduction For a good part of its history, the economy of colonial Eritrea was considered to be mainly rural, with industrial activities limited to a few sectors and present on 177