Sudan has numerous natural resources and potential for industrial production, with the most important being the agricultural elements and products that can ensure raw materials for many foodstuff industries, such as sugar refining.

Moreover, there are vast arable lands and many assisting factors, such as the appropriate climate, fertile soil, labour and reasonable infrastructures that provide greater potential for growing sugar cane, the mainstay of the sugar industry in Sudan.

More than 1,200km from Port Sudan is the crowning achievement within the sugar industry, Kenena Sugar Factory, one of the biggest integrated sugar refineries placed under one administrative body in the world.

Producing a variety of products, including white sugar, sugar cubes, syrup and molasses - as well as plans to produce briquettes and animal fodder from the remnants of sugar cane - observers initially felt that the factory would never work, due to its location, with no road to the port, no water and no power. However, today its total annual production of white sugar for Sudan has exceeded 300,000 tons, making it the world's largest individual producer.

The factory was originally set up following an agreement signed in 1972 between the Government of Sudan and the Lonrho Company, who already had extensive interests in Africa. Following the raising of $1 billion and the signing of several construction contracts, the factory's foundation stone was laid in 1976. Four years later the plant began processing sugar cane, before being officially inaugurated in 1981, with production deemed for domestic consumption only until 1991, when it began exporting. Despite this, Kenena has managed to provide more than 150,000 tonnes of sugar each year to the Government of Sudan.

Kenena Sugar Factory is located on the east bank of the White Nile, where it draws water for irrigation and processing. Around 7,000 million litres a day are needed for irrigation alone, with the estate's generation station having a capacity of 53MW, which make it the third largest electricity producer in the country.

Most of the sugar exported from Sudan goes to African and Middle Eastern stares, as well as India and Bangladesh, along with exports to Europe. Molasses are sold to both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Sudan has recently been basing the prices for its sugar exports on international prices, as opposed to the old method of negotiation. As the industry becomes more important to Sudanese industry, a new idea has been to manufacture paper from the remains of crushed sugar cane.