The Sudanese government said in Khartoum Sunday, July 29, it is inviting foreign and domestic investors to establish a $325-million sugar plantation and refinery beside the Nile river in central Sudan.
Work would begin by year-end to build a refinery and plant 200,000 acres of sugar cane in White Nile State, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Khartoum, Industry Minister Jalal Yusuf Al-Digair told reporters.
The scheme will employ 16,000 people and produce 300,000 tons of refined sugar per year after it begins a first phase of operations in 2004, he added.
That is equal to production at the Kenana plant, further south on the White Nile. The Sudanese government, together with Kuwaiti, Saudi and Japanese firms, are the main shareholders in the Kanana plant, which exports 50 percent of its output, mainly to Arab states.
Digair said production costs in the White Nile Sugar project would range between $70 to $80 a ton, which he said is less than that of the Kanana plant. In addition, the government runs four state-owned sugar factories.
The minister said Sudan's annual consumption of sugar is projected to rise to 800,000 tons in three years from the current level of 500,000 tons, while the country's current production stands at 700,000 tons. ― (AFP, Khartoum)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
