Promises to Address Gum Arabic Co. Problems

Sudan Events – Rehab Abdullah

The Minister of Trade and Supply, Al-Fatih Abdullah, affirmed the government’s keenness to address the problems facing the Gum Arabic Company in order to supply the state treasury with financial resources from foreign exchange. The Minister of Trade indicated, during his visit (Thursday) to the Gum Arabic Manufacturing Factory in Port Sudan, among several sites, companies and institutions under Minister’s supervision, to increase the added value of Gum Arabic, from which Sudan produces about 84% of global production, until his ministry sets basic plans to activate private companies for Gum Arabic production and agricultural production.
He stressed the state’s keenness to grant facilities to exporters and companies for their contribution to export revenues, to become the first support of the state in export revenues and to strengthen competition.
He called on public companies to work on adding value to Sudanese products and not exporting them raw, in order to double and increase the state’s trade balance.
For his part, the General Manager of the Gum Arabic Manufacturing Company, Mohammed Osman Digna, stressed the importance of manufacturing products to reduce the cost and increase the benefit, indicating that there is a desire and demand to manufacture gum. He said that the factory produces 20 tons of granules per day and 3-5 tons per day of powder, according to customer demand.
He said that the factory is a joint venture between the producers, the state, and the private sector, which owns 65% of the shares, the state 28%, and the producers 8%.