Sudan, Brazil to enhance agricultural cooperation
March 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Khartoum State, and the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture , are to sign a memorandum of understanding at the end of the Sudanese-Brazilian Investment and Trade forum on March 27.
Director of Animal Resource at Khartoum State, Tag-Eddin Osman Saeed, said the memo includes enhancement of cooperation in the agricultural and animal resources fields, training and exchange of expertise in fields of animal resources, meat, diary and poultry products.
The director of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, said that Sudan produces sorghum, wheat, millet, sesame seed, nuts, cotton and henna. Sudan also produces sugarcane, bovine, ovine and caprine meat, has available lands and water resources. However, it lacks the necessary know-how and machinery to make the sector advance and to cater to the domestic demand.
The director at the Department of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Negotiations at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Luiz Carlos de Oliveira, told the forum that Brazil is at the disposal of the Sudanese government to cooperate in the technological and human resources fields, with the objective of developing agriculture in the African country.
The governor of the State of Khartoum, Abdel Halim Ismael Mutaafi, who travelled to Brazil twice, said that the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) should finance exports of agricultural machinery and equipment to Sudan, said the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
The Forum, which began its sessions Tuesday, is organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Khartoum State.
On the Brazilian side participate representatives of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec), the Brazilian Poultry Exporters Association (Abef) and the Federation of Muslim Associations of Brazil (Fambras), as well as dairy producer Itambé and food sector company Perdigão.
Brazil opened an embassy in Khartoum in 2006 and started that this month issuing visas to the Sudanese, who previously had to get it from the embassy of Brazil to Cairo, in Egypt.
(ST)