Gum Arabic Processing and Marketing in the Sudan

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to determine and analysis the present trends in production and exporting channels of Gum Arabic, the present level of processing and marketing of Gum Arabic and the probable return by fully utilizing of Gum Arabic resources. The amount of gum Arabic produces from Sudan has declined from 48.1*103 metric tons in the year 1992 to 25.1*103 metric tons in 2006. That was due to several reasons such as shara drought and low prices paid to farmers. This instability in productivity affects on the shares of Sudan in the world market, which decreased from 50 percent in 1992 to less than 40 percent in 2006. The local processing companies face many problems especially in the high-energy cost, instability of government tax polices and high transportation fees. The local processing company (Dar Savanna Company) has been taken as a case study for describing the steps of processing Gum Arabic0. Some of the data collected from the kibbled gum process were used in the analysis and calculation of the yields of main products and byproducts. The percentage of main product was estimated to be about 86.8% and the byproducts and losses were 2.7% and 11.46% respectively, which are considered as satisfactory percentages. The main recommendation of this study is to pay more attention to this sector through clear government policies and free auction markets. On the other hand, it strongly recommended to export gums as processed gums rather than raw gums and to give farmers a successful prices for their gums.