Tea, tobacco sales boost Malawi’s export earnings – RBM Monthly Report

Malawi’s key export commodities—tea and tobacco—registered mixed performance in July 2025, with tobacco sales driving higher export earnings while tea production dipped, according to the latest economic report.

This is contained in the July issue of the Reserve Bank of Malawi’s Economic Monthly Review, published on its website.

Tea output for the month fell to 1.4 million kilograms, down from 2.1 million kilograms produced in June. However, production was slightly higher than the 1.3 million kilograms recorded in July 2024.

Despite the lower output, tea sales soared to 2.3 million kilograms, up sharply from 416,300 kilograms sold the previous month.

The surge in sales translated into higher earnings of US$2.3 million, compared to US$457,900 in June, largely due to increased trading volumes. However, the average tea price declined from US$1.10 per kilogram in June to US$1.00in July.

Meanwhile, the country’s major forex earner—tobacco—continued to perform strongly.

By the end of July 2025, Malawi had realized US$441.2 million from the sale of 173 million kilograms of tobacco at an average price of US$2.55 per kilogram.

This marked an improvement from US$396.6 million earned from 133.1 million kilograms sold at an average price of US$2.98 by the same period in 2024.

On the domestic front, headline inflation rose marginally to 27.3 percent in July from 27.1 percent in June, driven by higher food inflation, which accelerated to 32.4 percent from 31.6 percent.

The rise reflected a growing food supply gap during the 2024/25 agricultural season.

Conversely, non-food inflation eased to 19.3 percent, down from 20.1 percent in June.

The decline was mainly attributed to price reductions in several categories, including communication, health, furnishing, restaurants, clothing, transport, and housing.

Month-on-month, inflation increased to 2.3 percent in July from 1.9 percent in June, again influenced by food price pressures.

The mixed trends underline the continued volatility in Malawi’s commodity and price dynamics, with export gains offering some relief amid persistent inflationary challenges.