People generally prefer fresh fish, unless it is kapenta. However, the price of bream makes it unaffordable to lower income populations who mainly rely on dried or frozen kapenta for their fish consumption. Dried kapenta is consumed widely in rural areas. The distribution of fish is mainly linked to the Kariba fishery. Kapenta, particularly in its dried form, is the most widely distributed fish from the lake.
Frozen fish is distributed mainly through the supermarket chains.
Fresh fish is basically sold locally. Apart from some sun-drying and freezing, little processing is carried out. Traditionally, fish is preserved by smoke-drying over open pits. As demand for fresh fish outweighs supply, there is little economic incentive for processing. Canning of bream has been tried out, but it was discontinued because of low profitability.