The Ministry of trade implements plans to increase the value added of products

The Ministry of Commerce and Supply has embarked on the implementation and follow-up of a programme aimed at increasing the added value of Sudanese goods and products to enhance their presence in global markets.

Mr. Al Fateh Abdullahi Yusuf, Minister of Commerce and Supply, inspected the Arabic Gum Manufacturing Plant in Port Sudan in several locations, companies and institutions under the Minister’s supervision to increase the added value of Arabic gum from which the Sudan produces about 84% of global production.

He assured the plant’s operation and stopped the manual and mechanical gum cleaning and up to the preparation stages for export and ensured that the plant operated well in addition to another Arabic gum factory in the Al-Baqir area.

The Minister of Commerce noted that his Ministry had developed basic plans to activate private companies for the production of Arabic gum and agricultural production and reiterated the Government’s desire to address the problems facing the Arabian Gum Company to provide the state treasury with financial resources from foreign exchange.

The Minister stressed the State’s desire to grant facilities to exporters and companies under the supervision of the Ministry for their contribution to the outgoing earnings to become the first arm of the State in the outgoing earnings and to strengthen competition.

In that regard, he called on public companies to introduce the added value of Sudanese products and not export them in order to double and increase the State’s trade balance.

Mr. Mohammed Osman Diqnah, General Manager of Arabian Gum Manufacturing Company, stressed the importance of manufacturing products to reduce the cost and increase the benefit, pointing out that there is a desire and demand to manufacture the commodity and said that the plant produces 20 tons of granules per day and 3-5 tons per day of powder, as requested by customers.

He said the company is a shareholder between producers, the state and the private sector, which owns 65% of shares and the state 28% and producers 8%.

The plant began in 1995 and evolved in 2002 and touched on efforts to shift from exporting raw materials to manufactured materials to achieve value added for goods. It explained that the manufacture of Arabic gum instead of exporting it as raw material contributes to the national economy.

In addition, Awattaf Awad Al Khader, director of the Port Sudan branch of the Arabian Gum Company, reviewed the stages of the process of manufacturing Arabic gum and said that the process was carried out through four factory production lines related to hygiene, sorting, manufacturing and sorting of granules and manufacturing of powders.

The plant produced various varieties of globally desired Arabic gum.

It is worth mentioning that Mr. Al-Wazir’s visit to the Arabic Gum Manufacturing Plant comes as part of his inspection visits to the sites he supervises in order to familiarize himself with the situation in order to identify the obstacles and offer them effective solutions.