Beer prices in Malawi

update (16 April 2013): Prices for beer (Carlsberg) and soft drinks in Malawi have increased by 20%. [more]

Travellers usually like to know what they can expect to pay for food, drinks and all these other everyday costs before they are heading to Southern Africa. Well, we are trying to provide as many info about it as possible and are therefore updating the "Supermarket prices in South Africa" blog post every couple of month, but we never posted anything about prices in Malawi. So this post is going to be a first one.
Having an ice-cold beer in the evening is probably part of most travellers "social interaction" with other travellers and with the locals. Due to varirous reasons, the Malawian's favourite beer is Carlsberg [read more]. Not a cheap beer overseas, so we want to look at the current price in Malawi. The beer price in the country recently went up by 17%, so that the new official retail price for the popular Carlsberg Green (340ml) is now MK180 (€0.5, £0.4, US$0,65, ZAR5,40), while Carlsberg Special and Stout are both going at MK200 (€0.6, £0.45, US$0,75, ZAR6.00). Kuche Kuche costs you MK170 (€0.48, £0.39, US$0.62, ZAR5.00) and Carlsberg Green Light is MK230 (€0.65, £0.52, US$0.84, ZAR6.90). The prices for drinks in restaurants, pubs and bars are likely to be a bit higher.
The unit of currency in Malawi is the kwacha (MK), which is made up of 100 tambala. The best foreign currencies to carry with you are US$, British £ and South African rands. Enjoy Malawi!