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Sudan is an overwhelmingly agricultural country. Much of the farming is of a subsistence kind; in the late 1990s agriculture occupied some 80% of the workforce but contributed only 33% of the GDP. Agricultural production varies from year to year because of intermittent droughts that cause widespread famine. The government plays a major role in planning the economy. The leading export crops are cotton, sesame, and peanuts. Other agricultural products include sorghum, millet, wheat, dates, and sugarcane. Sheep, cattle, goats, and camels are raised. A variety of forest products are produced, by far the most important being gum arabic, with Sudan accounting for much of the total world production. In the south, fish caught in the Nile system are an important dietary staple. The leading products of the country's small mining industry are chromite, copper, salt, gold, manganese, gypsum, and mica. Petroleum deposits were developed in the 1970s, but the work was discontinued in the mid-1980s as military conflict in the south intensified. In the late 1990s, the government sought foreign partners to help redevelop the oil sector, and a pipeline was built from S Sudan to Port Sudan, on the Red Sea.
Industry is largely confined to agricultural processing and the manufacture of basic consumer needs; the chief products include ginned cotton, processed food, beverages, textiles, cement, soap, and footwear. Petroleum is also refined, but the main source of energy is hydroelectric power. The country has a very limited transportation network. Foreign trade is largely conducted via Port Sudan. Chief among the annual imports, the value of which is usually higher than that of exports, are food, petroleum products, machinery, transportation equipment, medicines, chemicals, and manufactured goods; the principal exports are ginned cotton, sesame, gum arabic, livestock, and meat. The leading trade partners are Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and other European Union countries, China, and South Korea.
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