Sun dried Kapenta. Image credit blogspot.com

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Natural Resources: Fishing: Fish processing and marketing

  • Subsistence and commercial fishers employ more or less the same processing methods.
  • The high tropical temperatures mean that fish go bad very quickly after being landed from the lakes rivers and swamps.
  • Small fish like the matemba/kapenta are sun dried on drying platforms before marketing.
  • The large fish such as the chambo and mlambo are opened up, cleaned and salted before either being sun dried or smoked.
  • Fresh fish are sold to the local markets.
  • The commercial fishing companies use refrigerated vans to transport fresh fish to the market.
  • Subsistence fisheries buy ice from a small plant at Mangochi.
  • Commercial catches are landed at fishing ports like Likoma island before they are dispatched to local markets in town.
  • The town of Limbe near Blantyre has a small refrigeration plant for storing fish.
  • Some of the fish are exported to other SADC countries like Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

To access more topics go to the O Level Geography Notes page