Malawi Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in malawi, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
Select Country Guide
Agricultural Sector
Last published date:

Overview

Agriculture accounts for more than one-quarter of Malawi’s gross domestic product.  The sector supports direct and indirect employment, economic growth, export earnings, poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition.  Turning the country’s agriculture sector into an engine of growth has been a long-term development goal for Malawi for many years.  Maize is the major food crop and is the focus of Malawi’s policy agenda, but tobacco has been and continues to be the dominant cash crop.  Tobacco is responsible for more than 40 percent of the country’s annual export earnings, with additional cash crops including dried legumes, sugar, tea, cotton, and nuts.  The government acknowledges that agricultural diversification is needed to grow the economy and provide increased food security.  Opportunities exist for cost-effective U.S. goods or technical knowledge that can be adapted for local agricultural conditions to boost crop quality, quantity, and diversification.

Leading Sub-Sectors

Leading sub-sectors in the agriculture industry in Malawi include tobacco, crop farming, livestock production, horticulture, fisheries and aquaculture, irrigation, and agro-processing.  Malawi’s desire to move away from reliance on rain-fed agriculture is opening opportunities for irrigation farming.

Opportunities

Potential investment opportunities in agriculture include livestock production (for dairy and beef), aquaculture, horticulture, agro-processing, sugar, soybean, cow peas, pork production, honey production, integrated cotton development, cassava production, and mushroom growing.  These agricultural products can be processed and exported under trading arrangements encompassing SADC, COMESA, and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) SCHEME of the EU’s Everything but Arms (EBA) Initiative, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), China General Tariff Preferential Treatment, the India Preferential Trade Arrangement, the Japan Preferential Trade Arrangement, and the Africa-wide market via the AfCFTA.  

Irrigation: Malawi relies primarily on rain-fed agriculture.  Opportunities exist to expand and support irrigation and bolster horticultural products such as vegetables, flowers, fruits, and rice that can be grown using surface, gravity, pump, river diversion, drip, or sprinkler irrigation systems. 

Technology: Opportunities to provide agricultural products, equipment, processing machinery, and packaging exist in most agricultural subsectors.  Innovative agricultural technologies to improve yield and efficiency, and improve resiliency from extreme weather and climate change are needed.  Integrating private sector and smallholder farmers into sustainable agricultural practices and innovations will have the best chance of success and contribute to value addition and trade initiatives.  Opportunities in agro-processing, including cotton ginning and spinning, textile and garment manufacturing, fruit processing, fisheries and aquaculture, beef and dairy processing, leather processing, fisheries, horticulture, medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp, legumes, oil seed production, and production of sugar cane products also exist.  There are also opportunities in innovative technologies including use of modern ICT in data collection and transmission.

Fertilizer: Opportunities exist for U.S. companies to export fertilizer into Malawi or to set up local fertilizer production plants.  Malawi currently imports over 90 percent of its fertilizer, approximately 430,000 metric tons per year.    

Resources

×

Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

Privacy Program | Information Quality Guidelines | Accessibility