ABSTRACT
The case of the Haggar Group of agribusiness companies in the Republic of the Sudan covers the development of a system of supply of tobacco, coffee, and tea in the southern region of the country, currently involving some 2,600 small-scale contract farmers, with plans to reach 7,000 by the end of the decade. These farmers have been brought from their traditional, isolated existence in the bush to become active participants in the cash economy of the nation.
To appreciate the vision, courage, and persistence that underlie this successful private sector venture requires a careful reading of the social and political history of the Sudan and an appreciation of conditions in southern Sudan. In the words of company president Anis Haggar, son of George Haggar, who founded the enterprise fifty years ago:
Southern Sudan, fifty years ago, was, and to a great extent still is, a remote, primitive, and severely underdeveloped area, with a harsh tropical climate, naturally protected against the rest of the world by the mosquito and the tsetse fly. It is a landlocked area, with negligible communications, and with severe logistical problems for business. It is a region embedded in major differences of ethnic groupings, race, and religion.
Despite the formidable obstacles to the commercialization of agriculture in the region, George Haggar started production and crop development studies relating first to tobacco and tea, and later to coffee, on an estate in the south, over forty years ago. Tobacco production could most readily be extended to outgrowers; a system of extension, credit, favorable pricing, and simple processing methods was introduced. By 1983, the system involved just under 2,500 farmers. While this was happening, over 100 farmers joined another network that added coffee growing to their traditional concentration on subsistence food crops. Currently, 96an expansion in both coffee cultivation and tea production is under way, each emphasizing a separate body of farmers.
The future of this collaboration between the Haggar Group and the small-scale farmers of the south seems bright. Sudan imports large quantities of all three crops and Haggar production supplies a very small fraction of the domestic market now. The limits to expansion of the program depend more on corporate finances than on farmer interest; far more farmers are expressing a wish to join the system than can be absorbed. Haggar is concentrating its efforts at present on obtaining financial backing from international sources for the outgrowers program.
