Malawi mostly exports tobacco (66%). Other commodity exports include tea (7.6%), sugar (6.0%), coffee (4.0%), and woven cotton fabrics (2.5%). Tea is sold primarily to the United Kingdom while sugar exports go to the EU and the United States. In 1995 Malawi’s imports were distributed among the following categories:

Consumer goods: 12.5%
Food: 7.7%
Fuels: 11.1%
Industrial supplies: 39.2%
Machinery: 13.7%
Transportation: 15.0%
Other: 0.8%

Principal trading partners in 1998 (in millions of US dollars) were as follows:
COUNTRYEXPORTSIMPORTSBALANCE
    
South Africa99308-209
United States591643
Germany571938
Netherlands49643
Japan423210
United Kingdom1624-8
Zambia1125-14
France880
Zimbabwe7156-149
Botswana610-4