In today’s Finshots, we explore the critical role of Gum Arabic and how the ongoing conflict in Sudan is disrupting its supply.

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The Story 

If the title led you to expect something scandalous, let’s assure you, there is nothing like it. Today's story is about a little-known but essential ingredient that keeps some of your favourite products together, quite literally.

Think about Coca-Cola, Nestle pet food, L’Oréal cosmetics, and even pharmaceutical tablets. What’s the common link between them all? It’s Gum Arabic, also known as Acacia Gum — a natural resin extracted from Acacia trees. And when you crush and mix it with water, it transforms into a smooth, gel-like solution, almost like runny glue or thin honey. This unique property makes it an irreplaceable stabiliser, thickener, emulsifier, and binding agent across industries.

In soft drinks, it prevents essential components from separating, preserving flavour. In chocolates and candies, it stops sugar from crystallising. In pharmaceuticals, it helps encapsulate pills and bind tablets. Even your lipstick and mascara owe their smooth application to this versatile ingredient. And the list goes far and wide, from finding utility in cigarette rolling papers, pet food, textile printing and dyeing – Gum Arabic plays a crucial role.

Today, upwards of 80% of the world’s Gum Arabic comes from Sudanese Acacia trees. Sudan has historically dominated its production and export. And for global billion-dollar consumer companies, uninterrupted access to this key ingredient is non-negotiable.

The only problem? Sudan seems to be in a turmoil today. And to understand why, let’s take it from the top.

You see, the Sudanese government primarily controlled the Gum Arabic trade. But after 2009, as international pressures to liberalise the trade increased, private entities also entered the picture. And things were going great until April 2023, when Sudan got embroiled in a brutal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group. And unfortunately, the RSF gained extensive control of the trade in Acacia gum-producing regions. 

RSF’s control made it challenging to maintain regular harvesting and production activities of Gum Arabic. To add to it, the conflict also caused significant disruptions in transportation networks, making it ever more tricky to move it from production sites to export points.

Now, on paper this looks like RSF has a monopoly over the trade and they have control over all the exports of Gum Arabic. But instead of facilitating exports through formal channels, they’re letting traders smuggle it across borders to neighbouring countries like Chad, Nigeria and South Sudan. 

Why is that, you ask?

For starters, smuggling keeps profits off the books. And that lets RSF impose its own informal taxes or fees on traders sneaking Gum Arabic into neighbouring countries. So compared to regulated exports, this shadow economy funds their war effort while keeping them outside the reach of government oversight.

Next, it weakens Sudan’s formal economy. Gum Arabic has long been the Sudanese government's primary foreign exchange earner. And by cutting off exports, RSF is depriving the Sudanese government of a crucial revenue stream.

And finally, controlling gum Arabic means controlling traders. By dictating prices, imposing levies, and deciding who gets access to supplies, RSF ensures that local businesses stay dependent on them and not the Sudanese state.

So, the interesting thing for us to check could be if global internationals are still buying it? And that’s where the trade gets tricky.

If RSF formally controlled it, countries and companies would shun the supply because it fuels the war economy. But RSF-controlled Gum Arabic is still finding its way to global consumer companies – just indirectly through Sudan’s neighbouring countries. And it is coming at a cheaper price, too. The only thing missing in this trade is the necessary certification that ensures these global buyers that a supplier of Gum Arabic is meeting sustainable and ethical standards.

And that effectively means that while multinational brands may not be sourcing from Sudan directly, they’re still fueling an economy controlled by militia forces. The same economy that the Sudanese government is fighting against.

So what’s the solution to this?

Well, some companies, like Ingredion (a US-based supplier of food ingredients) claim to have switched their sourcing of Gum Arabic to Cameroon (a country in Central Africa). 

But this won’t weed out the problem altogether. Because as we saw, Sudan dominates the supply of Gum Arabic, and completely replacing it is easier said than done.

Nevertheless, there’s hope as companies are working with a few potential and emerging alternatives that can be used as emulsifiers. A study from Malaysia suggests that replacing Gum Arabic with low levels of pectin could act as an emulsifying agent. And the US Department of Agriculture is also studying the potential of gum produced from corn to be used as an emulsifier.

There’s no denying that this is good news as diversifying supply sources is generally a smart economic move. But Gum Arabic is a naturally produced substance with unique properties that make it an excellent choice for a range of industries. And finding a perfect substitute for all its functions could be extremely difficult to say the least. 

But until the civil and political unrest in Sudan continues and military groups control the gum supply, the corporates and the gum industry do have a choice. They can push for, or even impose, stricter certification processes, greater transparency, and possibly increased investment in alternative sources to fix the issue. 

But till that happens, consumers may unknowingly be purchasing products tied to a war-torn economy.

Until then…

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