Industry is considered as a strategic objective for the nations to acquire development, leadership and to improve their economic status. The State of North Kordofan is distinguished itself by a remarkable comparative advantage and economic competitiveness in different agricultural products, which represent the national support for industry establishment.
The state has a comparative advantage in oil seeds, meat, agricultural foods, dairy and leather industries. It is classified as one of the top five industrial states in Sudan.
In order to activate the industry and make it more positive, the state created some initiatives, trends, governmental polices and institutional developmental procedures for industrial sector. This sector is considered as an important economical body among the state and the national level. It was intended to raise the industrial efficiency in the state, in order to attract the knowledge, technology and achieve industrial balance in rural and urban areas.
The North Kordofan State Teamwork for Revitalization (Nafeer) began its first and second phases, aiming at economical and social development sustainability in the state as well as increasing the productivity and production. Concerning the industry basis of North Kordofan state, it is clear that the huge resource potentialities are owned by the state and the supportive facilities for the industrial basis establishment are significantly contributing positive indicators to the economic development and growth.
Profile and characteristics of industry in the state:
The North Kordofan State is considered as the one of the top states with regard to acquiring knowledge of industry since ancient times. The oil seeds industry began with traditional expellers using camels in 1960, which is still ongoing in rural areas surrounding Elobeid and Um Rawaba. The production of oil seeds covers domestic consumption.
The oil seeds industry has been significantly developed in the 1980s with application of electrical power. Moreover, some industries such as seed decortications, sieves, confectionery, sesame paste and soap have also been developed as well as leather industry (shoes, bags and folklore).
Other industries are also prospering in the state; traditional sweets, jams, juices, metal and carbonated water, ice, flour, starch materials, biscuits, bakery, plastic, textile, sleepers, sponges, printing presses, agricultural processing, glazes, tiles, interlock and packaging.
As a result of the industrial development in the State, The industrial chamber was established in 1997 in accordance with the legislation of the Federation of Sudanese Chambers of Industry – Khartoum. This organization became under the umbrella of the Union of Employers in the State and has representation in the Union of Sudanese Chambers of Industry in Khartoum.
The industrial sector in the state has positive and significant contributions to the state’s local income, national income and export as well as it is role in reducing the unemployment phenomena.
The meat and leather industries started to prosper at the entrepreneurs level for domestic consumption. At the large scale level, the first factory was established in 2016. It’s production is expected to start by the end of 2018 and there are some procedures for new licenses for slaughterhouses establishment.
Manufacturing edible seeds oil
Oil seeds industry is one of the most important industries in the state, with a total number of 74 factories. The design capacity for these edible oil factories is about 500 thousand tons/year, while the actual capacity is about 250 thousand tons / year.
The number seed decortications machines exceeds 100 with a design capacity of 1 million tons of peel groundnuts.
Recommendations for development of oil industry in the state
1- Introduction of new oil seeds factories using oil refinery to reproduce oil from the traditional mechanical factories (estimated about 300 tons per day)
2- Introduction of new oil seeds factories using chemical solvent to extract oil from the cake (estimated to be 500 tons per day)
3- Introduction of new factories to produce modern plastic containers with international quality standards.
4- Special considerations should be given to value added within the new proposed industrial projects
Table: Statistics of existing factories in the state (2016)
| Errahad | Um Rawaba | Sheikan | existing | Industry type | No. |
| 14 | 23 | 37 | 74 | Oil industry | 1 |
| – | – | 16 | 16 | Bakeries (Biscuit/Cakes) | 2 |
| – | – | 4 | 4 | Noodles | 3 |
| – | – | 4 | 5 | Flour Mills | 4 |
| – | – | 2 | 2 | Soap | 5 |
| – | – | 3 | 3 | Plastics | 6 |
| – | – | 5 | 5 | Ready-Made Clothes | 7 |
| – | – | 12 | 12 | Printing Press | 8 |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | 11 | Agricultural Industry | 9 |
| 1 | 1 | 12 | 14 | Ice and Tonic Water | 10 |
| – | – | 2 | 2 | Pharmaceutical Industry and Construction Materials | 11 |
| 3 | 1 | 7 | 11 | Confectionaries and Tahnia Sweet | 12 |
| – | – | 3 | 3 | Juice and Jam | 13 |
| – | – | 5 | 5 | Packaging of Foodstuffs | 14 |
| 22 | 29 | 116 | 167 | Total |
Prospects for establishment of non-agricultural industrial investment in the state (proposed projects):
Industrial Investment Requirements(Proposed Projects):
From the interaction relations of the industries (outputs of industry are the inputs of other one). These mentioned industries can provide concrete base for the development of the industrial sector in proposed duty free zone.
