Decrease in Sudan’s Gum Arabic Exports

Sudan Events – Rehab Abdullah

Head of the Gum Arabic Exporters Division, Ahmed Al-Anna revealed a 60% decline in Sudan’s gum arabic exports.
Al-Anan explained in a press statement that Sudan’s gum arabic exports before the war, at best, ranged between 120,000 and 150 ,000tons, while they declined after the war in 2023 and decreased by 60% of the previous quantity, and he expected a further decline in 2024, and he expected it to be 40-50%.
He acknowledged the existence of a number of difficulties facing the gum production and transportation process, the most important of which is the lack of security in most areas of the belt, which is a major obstacle for producers, in addition to the difficulty of finding workers to collect and harvest due to the current situations.
He added that among the production problems is the lack of financing, as there is now a complete absence of banking financing institutions and even financing companies, so producers have not found financing to extract the gum, noting the difficulties facing marketing and the difficulty of reaching large stock exchanges such as the El Obeid Stock Exchange to sell the product due to security tensions, addition to the high cost of transportation.
He noted that reins of the impact of Bab al-Mandab incidents on gum arabic exports in a very large way, in terms of increasing the cost of shipping freight, in addition to the distance between ships arriving in Sudan, noting that in the past there were some shipping lines that had a weekly ship, but now it comes after about two months, and he confirmed that this affects the shipment of goods to consumers, in addition to the long distance.
He ruled out the existence of any alternative markets that companies resort to to fill the shortage in gum arabic imported from Sudan, adding, “I do not think so, because Sudan produces 80% of the world’s production.”