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:
COUNTRY | EXPORTS | IMPORTS | BALANCE |
South Africa | 99 | 308 | -209 |
United States | 59 | 16 | 43 |
Germany | 57 | 19 | 38 |
Netherlands | 49 | 6 | 43 |
Japan | 42 | 32 | 10 |
United Kingdom | 16 | 24 | -8 |
Zambia | 11 | 25 | -14 |
France | 8 | 8 | 0 |
Zimbabwe | 7 | 156 | -149 |
Botswana | 6 | 10 | -4 |