Southern Region

Southern Region hosts Blantyre, Malawi's commercial capital (900,000 population) and manufacturing center—home to Carlsberg's first brewery outside Denmark, Coca-Cola bottling, and Universal Industries' food processing facilities. This concentration arose from colonial-era rail connections to Mozambique's ports; Blantyre's economic primacy predates independence and persisted despite the administrative capital's 1975 move to Lilongwe. The region includes Thyolo and Mulanje districts where tea cultivation concentrates, alongside sugar production that completes the four-crop export structure. Manufacturing is almost exclusively Blantyre-based, creating a classic dual economy: industrial production in the south, agriculture everywhere. Southern Region's proximity to Mozambique provides (unreliable) port access through a neighboring country facing its own instability. The 2024-25 budget's 8.3% agriculture allocation targets productivity improvements across regions, but Southern Region's manufacturing sector depends on import cover for inputs—the 0.5 months of reserves constraint affects industry acutely. Tea processing operations around Thyolo and Mulanje link smallholder cultivation to export markets, with six companies handling the commodity chain. The region demonstrates how first-mover advantage in infrastructure (colonial railways) creates persistent concentration despite subsequent political decisions to relocate administrative functions.