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Sudan
FOREIGN TRADE AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
Foreign Trade
In 1989 Sudan's export earnings amounted to £Sd3,023.1 million
and its imports £Sd5,373.4 million. Export earnings dropped to
an estimated £Sd1,800 million in 1990, with imports remaining
at the 1989 level. Agricultural products have dominated Sudanese
exports since the condominium period, and in the 1980s they accounted
for more than 90 percent of export receipts. Cotton, gum arabic,
peanuts, sesame, and sorghum were the main commodities. Live animals;
hides and skins; and peanut, cottonseed, and sesame products (oil
and meal) constituted the more important remaining export items
(see table 8, Appendix). Sudan has long been the world's second
largest exporter of longstaple cotton, and cotton exports constituted
more than 50 percent of total exports by value in the 1960s but
declined to about 30 percent in the 1980s. Gum arabic was in second
place until the 1960s when production of peanuts expanded to occupy
that position which, however was not sustained by the late 1980s.
Sesame became the third most valuable export in the 1970s. Fluctuations
have occurred in the earnings of these four principal commodities
as the result of weather conditions, local price situations, and
world market prices.
Foodstuffs and textiles were Sudan's largest imports by value
at the start of national independence. These commodities held
that position into the mid-1970s, when they were surpassed by
increased imports of machinery and transport equipment as the
government began an intensive drive for economic development.
The share of foodstuffs and textiles declined by roughly one-half
during the decade, from 40.5 percent in 1971 to less than 20 percent
in 1979. In 1986 manufactured goods, including textiles, accounted
for 20 percent of imports whereas wheat and foodstuffs represented
about 15 percent. Machinery and transport equipment, which had
accounted for about 22 percent of imports in 1970, averaged 40
percent between 1975 and 1978, reaching a high of 45 percent in
1976, and dropped to 25 percent in 1986, reflecting the slowdown
of economic development (see table 9, Appendix).
Government plans for self-sufficiency through the development
of import substitution industries achieved limited success in
certain cases. Notable was the reduction in imports of refined
petroleum products that resulted from the 1964 opening of the
Port Sudan refinery. Substantial savings were made in foreign
exchange expenditure until the rise in world crude petroleum prices
after 1973. Crude oil and certain refined products accounted for
only about 1 percent of import values in 1973 but had increased
to more than 12 percent in 1986. Progress has been extremely slow
in sugar production, and government factories were reported in
the late 1970s to be meeting about one-third of the domestic demand.
After its opening in 1980, the new Kinanah sugar mill and refinery,
which alone had a rated capacity sufficient to replace most current
sugar imports, helped in 1981 to increase overall sugar production
to 71 percent of estimated consumption. Domestic textile production
had also increased greatly from the 1960s, and the share of textiles
in total imports had declined from about 20 percent at the end
of the 1960s to less than 4 percent in 1980.
In the early condominium era, Egypt had been Sudan's main customer.
The development of the Gezira Scheme, however, resulted in large-scale
exports of cotton to Britain, which by the end of the 1920s was
purchasing about 80 percent of Sudanese exports. Although development
of the textile industry in other European countries gradually
cut into Britain's share of cotton exports, at the start of World
War II that country still was the destination of almost half of
Sudan's total export trade and at the time of Sudanese independence
continued to be the largest customer. During the 1960s, India,
West Germany, and Italy emerged as major buyers; late in the decade
Japan also became a major customer. In the late 1980s, Britain
remained an important export destination. Other major customers
were France, China, and Saudi Arabia. In 1989 Saudi Arabia was
Sudan's main export market, buying an estimated 16.8 percent of
Khartoum's exports, particularly sorghum and livestock. The United
States although not one of Sudan's largest purchasers, became
a major customer in the latter 1980s, buying mainly cotton, gum
arabic, and peanuts (see table 10, Appendix).
After the May 1969 coup, Khartoum took steps to expand trade
with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Exports to the Soviet
Union rose dramatically in 1970 and 1971 as that country became
Sudan's leading customer. After the abortive communist-led coup
of 1971, however, relations deteriorated, and Soviet purchases
dropped to almost nil. After 1985 overtures to improve economic
relations with the Soviet Union met with little response. Economic
ties with China improved in the mid- and late 1980s, with exports
to Beijing reaching an estimated 7.3 percent of Khartoum's total
exports in 1989, making it Sudan's fifth largest customer.
Sudan's imports were provided by a wide range of countries, led
by Saudi Arabia in the late 1980s. In 1989, Saudi Arabia supplied
nearly 14.1 percent of Sudan's total imports, with petroleum the
chief import item. Britain was Sudan's main import source until
1980; in the late 1980s it became Khartoum's second largest provider,
supplying an estimated 8.3 percent of the country's imports in
1989. Britain had well-established commercial and banking operations
in Khartoum and a leading position in exporting manufactured goods,
vehicles, tobacco, beverages, chemicals, and machinery to Sudan.
Among the ten or twelve other top suppliers, the United States,
West Germany (Germany after 1990), France, Italy, the Netherlands,
China, and India were most significant. Most were also major export
customers.
Through 1978 Iraq had been a prime source of Sudan's imports
because it was the principal supplier of crude petroleum, a function
that was taken over by Saudi Arabia in 1979 after Iraq cut off
oil supplies because Sudan backed Egypt in the latter's peace
initiative with Israel. In the last years of the Nimeiri government,
bilateral trade with Egypt was cut sharply but in April 1988,
Sudan and Egypt signed a trade agreement valued at US$225 million.
In June 1991, Sudan ratified a US$300 million trade agreement
with Egypt. Improved relations with Libya enabled Tripoli to become
Sudan's third biggest importer in 1989. In January 1989, Sudan
and Tripoli signed a US$150 million agreement for Sudan to buy
Libyan crude oil. The two countries signed a trade pact in December
1989, with Sudan agreeing to purchase Libyan fuel, chemicals,
fertilizer, cement, and caustic soda.
Data as of June 1991
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