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 |
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