Africa | Sudan | Investment Opportunities

Investment Opportunities in Sudan

A. INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURE

Total arable land is about 200 million feddan (one feddan =4200sqm)
and only 30 million feddan is cultivated.

Investment in agriculture fields is welcomed in the following:
1. Wheat production
2. Sorghum (Dura)
3. Oil seeds (sesame, groundnut, and sunflower).

4. Fruits (mango, banana, juava, lemon, strawberry, pineapple (ananans), grapefruit.
5. Vegetable (tomato, greenbeans, akra, cucumber, potatoes, onion, garlic, spices, legumes, lentils).
6. Beekeeping to produce honey
7. Organic fruits and vegetable (alluvial soil along the Nile Banks and deltas of Wadi Toker, El Gash etc), makes the soil fertility very high and makes very big potentiality for production of organic fruits and vegetables to meet the rapid growing demand which reach 10% of European food consumption within the coming 10 years.

B. LIVESTOCK

50 million feddan of pasture land in addition to crop residue and oilcakes make cost of feeding very cheap. 106 million heads of cattle, sheep, goats and camels producing only 3 million tons of meat. Also Sudan is very rich in wildlife and there are investment opportunities for modern farms for ostriches, antelopes, crocodiles etc.

Investment in livestock is welcomed in:
1. Modern farm to fatten cattle, sheep, goats and camels and to produce meat, milk, wool etc.
2. Slaughter houses to export meat.
3. Milk factories to provide fresh milk, milk products for local consumption and export.
4. Investment in transport facilities for live animal and refrigerated means for meat and milk products.
5. Fisheries (Nile Perch) in the Nile, Lake Nubia Red Sea Poultry.
6. Animal fodder
7. Drugs and vaccines.
8. Improvement of quality of the natural herds by introducing new breeds to improve milk and meat production.

C. MINING

Sudan has vast mineral deposits that have not been exploited; mineral deposits which are discovered in different parts of the country are waiting for local and foreign investors which include:
1. Gold (now exported by joint French/Sudanese Eriab Company - 8 tons per annum)
2. Silver, iron ore, chromate, mica, silica, gypsum, granite, marble, chinaclay, manganese, asbestos, trauna (costic soda), talc and lime stone, copper, zink, lead, cement.
3. Small quantities of mica, chromate, asbestos and marble are exported in addition to gold.

D. ENERGY

One of the bottlenecks in Sudan is shortage of energy especially electricity. River Nile with many eataracts and waterfalls, strong winds, agricultural by-products, sun, forests, all these sources give excellent opportunity for investment in those areas:

1. Petrol and gas production
2. Hydro-electric projects (micro, small and big)
3. Solar energy for lightning and heating
4. Wind power for irrigation
5. Water turbines for irrigation from the Nile
6. Biomass
7. Charcoal from agricultural by-products
8. Coal

E. INDUSTRY

Fields for investment in industry in the Sudan

1. Joint-ventures in rehabilitation of edible oil mills, leather industry, textiles…
2. New sugar factories.
3. Oil productions (petrol and gas).
4. Petrochemicals.
5. Fertilizers: urea (demand 500000 tons)
6. Tomato paste and syrup (9 months tomato season).
7. Fruit juice and concentrate, dried fruits, mango, Juava, lemon, grapes, papaya, dates, strawberry and pineapples.
8. Yeast (from sugar by-product, dates)
9. Leather products.
10. Dehulling of sesame seeds.
11. Spray dry gum Arabic and guar gum.
12. Packing industry, cardboard, plastic glass and sack for grains.
13. Paper industry, from dates tree, agricultural by-products and forests.
14. Compressed earth brick machines.
15. Pharmaceutical products and medical equipments

Leather industries in Sudan

Given its animal resources, Sudan is considered as the richest country in Africa .the total number of national flock amounted to 141,904 million heads in 2010.

Sudan leather industry is characterized by a number of advantages, witch are not available for most of other industrial sector and they could be summarized into:-

Availability of raw material (all kinds of required leather, with suitable amounts and prices as well).
Availability of infrastructure whether that witch is related to manufacturing of leather raw material(tanneries) or leather in its all phases , whether it is ready for local industry or partially manufactured for export or leather products with high quality.

A/ Leather :

The price of exported hides & skins amounted to 13.974milion US dollars in 2010 and 30.027milion US dollars in 2011 according to Sudan bank foreign trade statistical digest 2011.

B/ Tanneries: there are many big and medium tanneries in Sudan and rural tannery groups distributed throughout the country. Tanneries export (w/b) leather.

Development operations are underway for exporting crust, finished and manufactured leather products.

C/leather shoes:

The total amount of skin & hides (in thousand tons) during 2009-2010.

year	quality
2009	76.7
2010	77.6

Source: Sudan Bank annual report for2010.

Fields and opportunities of investment in leather industry:-

A/ promoting operational capacity of existing tanneries to reach the level of producing crust leather, (its an advanced phase of soft tannery) and upgrading finishing capacity to meet local market demand.

B/Establishment of new tanneries in Khartoum , Algazeera and Kordofan to increase production so as to provide products for local market and export.

C/Producing leather clothes for export.

D/ Establishment of modern factories for producing shoes ,bags and belt of nhigh quality for external markets.

E/Producing compressed leather in Khartoum ,Darfour,Algazeera and Kordofan.