Abstract: The study tries to address whether the private enterprise in the Sudanese sugar industry outperforms its counterparts in the public sector. It tries to measure the performance along the public-private ownership dichotomy using two approaches. First, it uses Return on Investment (ROI). Secondly, it uses Cost per unit of output, Capacity utilization and Average labour productivity. The study findings show that poor performance in the public sector is attributed to factors closely associated with public ownership such as tight government control and putting emphasis on socio-political goals such as job creation and subsidizing the final consumer of this strategic commodity. The paper recommends that the contractual approach and commercialization of PEs in the sugar industry as reform measures.