Malawi customs regulations

Duty-free allowance

Tobacco limit

Restricted to travellers 18 years and over. One of the following:

• 200 cigarettes;
• or 250g tobacco in any other form.

Bringing alcohol

Restricted to travellers 18 years and over. All of the following:

• 1 litre spirits;
• 1 litre of wine or beer.

Other Goods

• 250mL eau de toilette and 50mL perfume.
• Personal goods up to the value of MK300,000 per traveller.

Prohibited items

The following are goods which cannot be brought into the country.

• Any attempt to import a restricted good without a relevant permit is considered to be a prohibited import.

Restricted items

These goods are strictly regulated, and in most cases require a permit to be obtained prior to arrival.

• All animals must be certified as free from disease before importation.
• Wild animals and their derivative products.
• Live fish, their eggs, and spawn.
• Any bird eggs, whether in shell or dried form.
• Bees and their derivative products, including honey and beeswax.
• Meat requires written permission from the Minister of Industry and Trade.
• Clothing and uniforms designed for military or police use.
• Pharmaceuticals.
• Gold.
• Sugar.
• Knives with a spring blade, such as flick knives.
• Radioactive substances.
• Game traps.
• Mist nets for the capture of wild birds.
• Unpreserved beans.
• Compound products containing flour and meal residues, including chemical additions to animal foodstuffs, antibiotic growth stimulants, and bird seed.
• Gram and dhall.
• Ground nuts.
• Maize, including maize grits, maize cones, and hominy chop.
• Oil seeds, oil meal, oil cake, offal, and residue from oil seeds.
• Potatoes.
• Rice.
• Rupoko and rupoko meal.
• Bananas.
• Exercise books.
• Fertilisers.
• Dieldrin.
• Aldrin.
• Kitchen and table salt.
• Ammunitions and guns.