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GV Workers entering sugar factory, Sennar, Sudan.
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2.
GV INT. President Nimeiry of Sudan walking through factory with officials.
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GV Sugar factory
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SVS Nimeiry leaves factory. (2 shots)
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GVS Nimeiry's convoy arriving at sugar fields, surrounded by crowds. (2 shots)
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SV Workers carrying sugar-cane.
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7.
CU Nimeiry lighting torch and setting fire to sugar fields. (3 shots)
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SV PAN FROM Burning sugar crop to Nimeiry and officials watching the fire. (3 shots)
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SVS President Nimeiry talking to Mr. Gharwell, Chairman of British refinery Builders Fletcher and Stewart. (2 shots)
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SVS PAN FROM Crowd to Nimeiry laying sugar pieces into trenches. (2 shots)
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GV Sugar fields burning
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Sudanese leader, president Ja'afar al-Nimeiry, formally opened a new sugar refinery at Sennar, 160 miles (250 kilometres) south of Khartoum on Saturday (16 October).

SYNOPSIS: The new refinery was built by a British firm, Flecher and Stewart of Derby in England, at a cost of about 45 million pounds sterling (75 million dollars U.S.). The factory has a planned output of about 60,000 tons (tonnes) of sugar in its first year, with a full-capacity output of about 110,000 tons (tonnes) by 1980. The government hopes to save over 18 million pounds (30 million dollars U.S.) next year by producing their own sugar.

After opening the new factory, President Nimeiry went to look at the fields of sugar-cane that will supply it with raw materials, and set a torch to the field prior to cutting. Sugar-cane is a crop new to Sudan, introduced in the past few years. The new refinery and sugar-cane estate are just part of an agricultural expansion in Sudan, aimed at making it one of the Arab world's major supplier.

It's expected by the Sudan that it could be supplying one-fifth of the Arab world's sugar needs within 10 years. But sugar is not the only commodity that the country hopes to provide for export. Meat, oilseed, cotton and grain crops are also receiving large boosts in production. Much of the money for Sudan's development is coming from the Arab countries.

Recent oil price rises have provided the huge amounts of money needed to turn Sudan into the bread basket of the Arab world, but large problems still face the country's development - particularly poor transport facilities.