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As this study documents, the charcoal industry is one of the largest in Malawi; if the product was exported, the annual foreign exchange income to the country would fall somewhere between that of tea and sugar. Charcoal is therefore a product with a very large domestic market, yet whose production is treated variously as either non-existent or illegal. The question that we hope this report stimulates as the core of a lively debate among government officials, parliamentarians, interested parties and the general public is simple: "How do we want to produce this product to meet market demand in a better manner?"

Kambewa, Mataya, Sichinga and Johnson. 2007. Charcoal: the reality - A study of charcoal, consumption, trade and production in Malawi. Small and Medium Forestry Enterprise Series No. 21. IIED, London, UK.