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Trade unions in Malawi have gone through three developmental phases. The colonial time from 1945 – 1964. This was a time when Malawi was being ruled by the British.  Then there was the Post independent period between 1964 and 1991 – the one party rule when most unions were banned by the government, the unions which operated during this time were those the government was working with. Then there was the multi party era between 1991 and 1992. Most unions became active after 1992. The national union centre before 1994 was called Trade Union Congress of Malawi (TUC). In 1994 an interim committee was formed replacing the dormant federation Trade Union Congress of Malawi. Malawi Congress of Trade Unions was formed on the 2nd of July 1995. The first president was Ken Williams Mhango who was also president of HFPCWU.

HFPCWU was registered on 14^th February 1995. It was covering the tourism sector. On 31^st July 2002 the union applied to cover the food processing sector. Currently HFPCWU covers Tourism sector, Food Processing sector including poultry and Catering sector.

HFPCWU is the only union operating in the Hospitality and Food processing sector. In the beverages sector there is a company union called Carlsberg Malawi Trade Union CAMAWU operating at Castel. Before 2013 this was registered as – Carlsberg Sobo Trade Union (CASOTU). In 2013 HFPCWU and CASOTU signed a working relationship agreement where both unions were to keep their certificates. This proved hard since Carlsberg company could not negotiate with two unions who were on the same level. In May 2014 it was agreed that CASOTU be deregistered and joined HFPCWU. In 2016 HFPCWU held its fifth congress and only two people – the current vice president and regional representative for the south were elected.  The leadership of Carlsberg Trade Union forced members to withdraw from HFPCWU