Sudan has long held the position of the world’s leading producer and exporter of gum arabic, at times supplying up to 80 per cent of the global export market. Since independence, the gum arabic sector has played a pivotal role in the Sudanese economy and holds considerable socio-economic significance for millions of rural households living across a belt stretching half a million square kilometres: from Gedaref State near the Ethiopian border in the east to the Darfur region bordering Chad in the west, cutting across thirteen of Sudan’s eighteen states. Sudanese gum arabic is derived from the Acacia senegal tree, known locally as hashab, which yields the industry’s gold-standard resin, alongside the lower-grade Acacia seyal, or talh. 

According to the most recent pre-war external trade report released by the Central Bank of Sudan in December 2022, gum arabic ranked fifth among agricultural exports and sixth among all national exports, after gold, sesame, live animals, cotton, and groundnuts, generating an estimated USD 139.4 million, including approximately USD 57.5 million in exports to France. 

However, the war that erupted on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with their allied factions and militias, has severely disrupted agricultural activity, trade networks, and rural livelihoods. 

As the war deepens, the consequences: ranging from insecurity and displacement to restricted market access and broken supply chains, are now seriously jeopardizing Sudan’s status as the primary global supplier of gum arabic.