Kenana Managing Director Mohamed al-Mardi told Reuters in an interview that Kenana hoped to secure an initial $500 million in January for the joint Egyptian-Sudanese Mahaseel agriculture investment fund which will then begin implementing "mega projects" in Africa's largest country by area.
Sudan hosted a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference on food security hoping to show Sudan's abundance of Nile waters and fertile land could offer a solution to global food concerns.
"There are six companies who applied for licences to work with Kenana and Sudan in the field of agriculture," Mardi told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting. "All of them have been granted licences and now they start coming to Sudan," he added.
Valmont Industries Inc were already in Sudan to discuss irrigation projects. Arkel Constructors will be working on construction and ITC would help convert cellulose into ethanol. The other firms would visit in November, he said.
The licensing deals will bring in peanut and soya bean harvesters, combine harvesters and technology previously unavailable to Sudan, which relies on hundreds of millions of dollars each year in food aid in the south and war-torn Darfur regions.
Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 because of civil wars, accusing it of supporting terrorism. In 2007 it stengthened the embargo citing abuses in Darfur.
But this month Washington announced it was easing sanctions on agriculture equipment and services, a move to boost relations ahead of a southern referenudm on secession which most analysts believe will create the world's newest nation in south Sudan.
"This is a very big step for us to open up with the American technology with respect to agriculture and at the same time working together to improve productivity, yields and the economics of agriculture in Sudan. This is just the beginning," Mardi said.
Grand Plan
Sudan has a grand sugar plan to become a net exporter of the commodity by 2014. Kenana is the country's largest sugar firm and has expanded into other agricultural schemes including reviving Sudan's massive redundant farming projects.
"This will open up for us to improve a lot especially with respect to cane harvesting and grains and oilseeds. This equipment is very important for large-scale mechanisation," he added.
Sudan has two crops a year so Mardi said mechanised farming was essential. "Unless we have a mechanised operation, the window for planting will be compromised," he said.
"Mechanisation is very important for speed, for uniformity of the product, accuracy and ultimately the productivity."
Mardi said he expected the Mahaseel fund, a joint project with Egypt's Beltone to secure its first $500 million by January and begin working on food security projects in Sudan.
"What was crippling Sudan for years was the finance for some time and also the will really to do a major programme with respect to the agriculture revival," he said.
But he said the government now had a clear plan prioritising agriculture and Khartoum and Cairo each committed $100 million each to Mahaseel to start the fund off.
"This will encourage all the others to come in to this fund and to create even more than one fund in the future," he added.
Devastated by years of multiple civil wars, Sudan faces a major challenge with the independence vote for southerners on Jan. 9, 2011. Political uncertainty surrounding the emotional vote has deterred some major investors.
Much of Sudan's 470,000 barrels per day of oil lies in the south but Sudan's agriculture projects are north of the border. (Reuters)
