Al-Hamri saved his gum for the entire period after his harvest, hoping that prices would rise in local shops so he could cover production costs, which he borrowed from traders. Embarrassed to see his creditors demanding their financial rights, he told Sky News Arabia.
According to dealers in the Al Nahud market, which is the second largest gum arabic exchange in Sudan, the purchase price of gum arabic has decreased by 100%, because the price of one quintal (equivalent to 41. 6 kg) before the outbreak of the conflict army was 30,000 pounds, or about 50 US dollars, while it is currently offered at 15,000 pounds, and no one wants to buy for fear of a prolonged war and losses material.
export peak
Military clashes erupted at the same time as the end of the gum arabic harvest, which begins in November and ends in mid-April. With their financial obligations to the banks from which they borrowed, to prepare for the summer agricultural season and to meet their needs. needs. Former director of the Nuhud exchange and one of the main dealers of gum arabic, Muhammad Adam Ajab, indicates that the exchange has completely ceased to operate, with a significant drop in buying and selling prices due to its association with major stock exchanges in North Kordofan, the capital and Khartoum, in addition to producers being unable to reach markets due to looting gangs that spread widely after the outbreak of war. Ajab told Sky News Arabia: “Gum arabic producers and workers will pay an exorbitant bill because of this war. This is a vast sector estimated at millions, some of which depend primarily on gum for their livelihoods,” stressing that both parties to the conflict in the military and Rapid Support have so far acted responsibly. to citizens and their property, but gum producers have been hit by looting gangs. He adds: “Gum arabic producers have not been able to visit their farms. since the start of the armed conflict, as they had to carry out the final stage of harvesting and disposing of the remaining gum. Leaving them during this stage will harm the acacias and weaken their production. Next season this will be added to the wasted quantities they could have harvested from the last harvest.
Two million people affected
The gum arabic belt covers 13 states of Sudan and is concentrated in the regions of Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile and the Gedaref region in the east of the country. Sudan’s exports of gum arabic fluctuate between 90 and 100,000 tons per year, with an average revenue of 97 million dollars, according to the official communiqué of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Trade. Gum arabic researcher Ezz El-Din Ahmed Dafallah told Sky News Arabia: “The gum producers didn’t need a new ordeal to befall them because they was enough to double the price of the product compared to the great suffering they face in the production processes that are carried out in a primitive and exhaustive way.” It’s a big risk.” Daffallah guest, “Maybe the harvesting operations that are over won’t be affected, but the producers who still keep their production of gum arabic have been affected, because they were waiting for prices to go back up. slightly, but the conflict broke out, prices fell, and markets closed, leading to the failure of the current campaign, and the resulting losses.” Exorbitant financial costs for producers and for traders. He continued: “We were presenting a study to develop the gum arabic sector and revalorize the producers, based on the promulgation of legislation prohibiting the felling of acacia trees and acacia trees, the increase in their forest areas, the creation of large companies for producers, and the establishment of gum arabic processing factories to prevent its export in raw form in order to benefit from the added value, but the armed conflict has blocked the way for these efforts. ” “.
fears rise
With continued armed clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in the capital, Khartoum, and in different parts of Sudan, gum arabic producer Abdullah Al-Hamri is increasingly concerned about the stagnation of his production, which he keeps at home. He hoped prices would rise slightly, but the dispute caused prices to plummet. He told Sky News Arabia: “We mainly depend on my gum production, so we support myself for a whole year from my gum harvest, but my life plan will fail this year after its prices fell by spectacularly, because the price of the quintal reached 15,000 Sudanese pounds after us. We hope that at least 50,000 pounds will come to cover production costs and meet our food and medicine needs.”
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
