An initiative to support small Gum Arabic Producers in Sudan

Sudan Events – Rehab Abdullah

A group of gum arabic export companies announced an initiative to collect financial contributions called the “Seed Bank” for small gum arabic producers in appreciation of the group’s living conditions in light of the country’s current circumstances.
The former Director of Forests, Dr. Abdul Azim Mirghani, said that the first steps of this initiative are contributions collected from the companies Al-Anan, owned by Ahmed Al-Anan, Afrotech, owned by Hisham Saleh Yaqoub, Kantara, owned by Al-Kanani, Umm Al-Qari, owned by Hussein Haj Ali, and Nobak, owned by Hashem Al-Daqir, adding that there is more flow of contributions from the remaining companies on the way.
The head of the Gum Arabic Exporters Division, Ahmed Al-Anan, explained how to employ these contributions for the benefit of those targeted in the best possible way, affirming that they will be discussed on a broad consultation scale outside the division.
Mirghani pointed out that in 1988, a comprehensive Shura Council was held for those involved in the production, trade, marketing and manufacturing of gum arabic from inside and outside Sudan.
At that meeting, several recommendations emerged in favor of developing the gum arabic belt, including a recommendation to allocate a percentage of the net profits from gum arabic sales to the development projects of the gum arabic belt implemented by the forests, which had the best impact on the gum sector in the years following that meeting.
Mirghani added that Sudan has many friends on the global level in the fields of marketing and manufacturing gum arabic, pointing out that based on the initiative of the voluntary solidarity group of gum arabic exporters, these friends can be included as members of the single Sudanese gum arabic family. He confirmed that the friends are affected with regard to gum arabic production by the current events in Sudan in terms of the shortage of supply and the rise in prices, and he saw that it is in their interest, as well as ours, to work together to ensure the future of this industry, whose fate and the fate of a large segment of our citizens are linked to its fate and to the fate of what is happening to it on the ground in Sudan, its first and only producer. Mirghani asked, “Who will adopt the initiative to call for a comprehensive Shura meeting for the members of the single gum arabic family and arrange it to discuss the future of gum arabic? The Minister of Agriculture or Trade?
Or the Exporters Division?” Ahmed Al-Anan explained that the Seed Bank Initiative is a popular initiative in terms of management, financing and implementation, sponsored by the Green Sudan Movement through coordinators appointed throughout the states of Sudan, according to four stages: a one-year emergency stage that aims to encourage organized collective work in the rapid production of healthy and organic food from vegetables, which is the current stage, followed by short, medium and long-term stages that ultimately aim to create productive, creative and green schools.
The target groups of the initiative during the emergency stage are homes in villages and cities, schools and khalwas that house displaced persons, and funding during the emergency stage is voluntary, either in cash or in kind (seeds) or by exerting effort and energy or providing expertise.