Sudan must liberalise its depressed gum arabic industry and offer farmers better incentives if the sector is to recover, farmers said on Monday.
Until a decade ago, Sudan used to produce 80 percent of the world's gum arabic, a key component in soft drinks, printing, pharmaceuticals and other products.
But the sector is now in danger of collapse due to government controls on marketing and export through the Gum Arabic Company, participants at a workshop warned.
"Producers are stopping planting and turning to other crops because the company insists on paying much less than the producers want," said Yacoup Adam Hamouda, a gum arabic farmer from North Kordofan State in central Sudan. Gum arabic was one of a few items the United States exempted from sanctions it imposed on Sudan in 1997 for Khartoum's support for international terrorism.
Before Sudan began exporting petroleum, it accounted for about 16 percent of foreign revenues. And until 1920, it was Sudan's number one export. It continues to be an important crop, with some 6 million Sudanese depending on it for a living. In 2006, Sudan exported about 9,000 tonnes of Gum Arabic worth some $20 million compared to nearly 50,000 tonnes in 1970, official figures show.
The Gum Arabic Company said that the fall in prices in the international market, reduced demand and the arrival of new producers such as Nigeria and Chad have made the market more competitive.