" Sudanese Gum Arabic in the Grip of War: From Supply Chains to Smuggling Routes" July 2025

After livestock and sesame, gum arabic ranks as the third largest contributor to agricultural export revenues. Between 2014 and 2016, Sudan accounted for 70–77 per cent of global gum arabic exports, valued at around $150 million annually…As the war deepens, the consequences: ranging from insecurity and displacement to restricted market access and broken supply chains, are now seriously jeopardiz- ing Sudan’s status as the primary global supplier of gum Arabic…the country is now gripped by severe hunger, with close to 18 million people facing acute food insecurity. Reports of famine-like conditions have already emerged in overcrowded displacement camps and some areas of the capital…

According to Ahmed Al-Anan, the head of the Gum Arabic Exporters’ Association, exports of gum arabic have declined by approximately 60 per cent since the outbreak of the conflict, with projections suggesting a further 40 per cent drop by year-end…Access to the main gum arabic auctions in Al-Obeid and An-Nuhud has become increasingly difficult due to road blockages, while transport costs from production areas to towns or export ports have soared, driven by the proliferation of informal tolls, which sometimes exceed one million Sudanese pounds per truck, assuming trucks are even available within the gum belt…

Most of the labour falls under the category of unpaid family labour, primarily elderly individuals and women…In these rural markets, the agricultural sector as a whole is subject to a range of tra- ditional and commercial financing mechanisms, such as the sheil system, malas, katfali, rahniya, mufasala, bargain, and gal, each varying widely in their degree of fairness or expositions...
...