The main economic products of Malawi are tobacco, tea, cotton, groundnuts, sugar and coffee. These have been among the main cash crops for the last century, but tobacco has become increasingly predominant in the last quarter-century, with a production in 2011 of 175,000 tonnes.[1] Over the last century, tea and groundnuts have increased in relative importance while cotton has decreased.[2] The main food crops are maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, sorghum, bananas, rice, and Irish potatoes and cattle, sheep and goats are raised. The main industries deal with agricultural processing of tobacco, tea and sugar and timber products. The industrial production growth rate is estimated at 10% (2009).
- ^ UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): FAOSTAT http://faostat3.fao.org/home/index.html#DOWNLOAD Archived 2013-04-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ J G Pike, (1969). Malawi: A Political and Economic History, London, Pall Mall Press, pp. 173, 176-8, 183.