Agricultur without natural resources

Malawi is a typical African agricultural country with a lack of natural resources, which makes the arable soil the most important resource. Other industries, such as industrial production or tourism are stuck in their infancy. To gain foreign exchange, the country is therefore dependent on exportation of itst main agricultural commodities. These include mainly tea, tobacco, coffee and sugar which must be exported expensively overland to Tanzania and South Africa.

Mass unemployment is part of everyday life of over 17 million citizens. Economic development is hampered by lack of money in the educational sector. A surplus of unskilled labour on the one hand is facing a shortage of skilled workers on the other hand. The level of primary schooling is low and only 2% of pupils manage to visit secondary level.

Some comparative figures in gross domestic product per capita (GDP) of different countries (US Dollar):

Malawi $ 350
Mozambique $ 475
Kenia $ 1016
Tanzania $ 1040
Zimbabwe $ 1434
Zambia $ 1503
South Afrika $ 6354
Italy $ 34 321
Switzerland $ 83 161
(IWF 2019)