Can you give us a background on what we call " Arabic gum"?
It's known that it's not a modern crop, maybe 8.000 years old, and it was used for preservation of the mummies in Egypt. Gum Arabic is not an Arab product; it is called gum Arabic because it has been exported to Europe through the Arabian ports such as Sawakin Port in Sudan, Port Sudan, Jeddah and other Arabian ports; it's an African crop. It's a product coming out of Acacia trees, which mainly lives in the Savanna climate. God promised prophet Moses things to eat, the Manna, a type of meat and this Manna came from Acacia tree, so people think that this gum is the Manna that has been sent with the prophet Moses to the Israeli, and since this time there has always been some mystery surrounding the gum; there are a lot of stories about it, and a lot of uses and every time there is a new use for gum Arabic.
Through the movement of the great desert in Africa, this gum Arabic brought by savanna has shifted by time towards Central Africa, and now it is starting from central parts of Sudan to Ethiopia, and to Chad towards Nigeria.
Has the Acacia been brought from Senegal and that's why it is called Acacia Senegal?
There are about 360 types of Acacia trees, one of them is Acacia Senegal, it does not mean that it originates from Senegal, but the first one who found the Acacia that's producing this gum found it in Senegal, so he called it Acacia Senegal. There is also Acacia Nileotica, Acacia Sudanica, and a lot of Acacias that produce a material of gum. Actually Gum Arabic is not a crop, it's not like wheat, it's not a product of the fruit plants, but it's the interaction between the environment and the tree; you know, you make scratches whether mechanical or physical and then the tree will change it's physiology because the weather is too hot so it doesn't want to loose humidity so it exhibits this material to prevent further evaporation of the water; so as I said, it's an interaction of the environment with the plant, and it is not a product of the tree or a crop, so it's unique because depending on this environmental factors, the quantity and the quality of gum is different. It's not necessarily because you grow this Acacia plant in Nigeria that it would give you gum Arabic, also if you grow the plant in Malaysia and give it much water, it may not give gum Arabic, cause it doesn't loose water, if you grow it in Europe also there is a lot of rain, it can grow up the tree but it will not give you gum Arabic, so it's the environment that decide the production quality and quantity, so I think it's our own environmental gift from god.
What makes gum Arabic so special and not subject for substitutions?
There is a substitute for gum Arabic, but it's not 100% substitute. There are some industries for which the demand of gum Arabic is very important; there is no way that they go for another substitute like say Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola they have to use gum Arabic, because the solution is very stable. Also if you have any background on chemistry, it gives you a good homogeneous solution; you can merge the juice in a cup or a bottle; on the other hand it's capsulate the flavor and it doesn't loose the flavor quickly like the other materials, so gum Arabic is used to encapsulate the flavor for longer time, and this is also true for some cosmetics it gives the acceptance and the smell for long time. The chemistry of the gum itself is unique, it is used as a stabilizer in the food industry. So it's very important, chemically stable, neutral in its action, natural product, not harmful, not poisonous, it does not cause any side effects. Another use is for instance the sweet industry: you can substitute gum Arabic by using gelatin, and gelatin is not stable and it can not be preserved for long time, also nowadays you know we are talking about the animal diseases like cow madness and other diseases, so people will come back again to the natural products.
Gum Arabic is used in many aspects where other materials can not fit; we can use substitutes in sweets but we can not use them in Pepsi cola, because this is a recipe we can not change, and they store bottle stocks for at least five years, so when Pepsi Cola makes an order for a company it means this is the order for the year number six to come, not now.
In medicine there is no doubt of the importance of gum Arabic, because it is a used in the production of many drugs for different diseases like kidney failure, diabetes, … it has a lot of uses.
What is your policy regarding quality control? Could you also tell us about the award you received last year 2000 in Madrid, the commercial international award?
Our policy in quality control is very much concerned about this. Most of the European countries in the past used to import only raw gum before processing, but with the increase of prices of labor and additional costs, they may prefer let us do some processing down here, but they become a little bit sensitive about the quality and the cleanness, and now our factory is equipped with the highest standard facilities relevant to quality control just like in many European factories; that is the reason why we have recently being awarded a contract directly with Pepsi Cola.
Do you think that this contract will help to convince many other manufacturers that didn't rely on your finished products?
Yes, because we have been audited by Pepsi Cola and passed to be a good reliable source of supply, and this have been made after we made a lot of modifications in our factory concerning the quality, the construction of the factory itself. | How successful have you been so far at breaking into the Asian market, and in Japan in particular?
We have tried and we are doing a good job. Our exports to Japan and East Asian countries are increasing, but not to our ambitions. The European market seems to be more interested in this material and they use it for different applications; I think that our material is being re-exported from Europe to Japan under another name. Actually, gum Arabic is known to have this code No. E414, so in many medicines, in many specification of any material you may find this material containing E414. Our mother company now owns about 80% of the Khartoum gum Arabic processing company, and together we will be forming a strong base for the export of gum.
Do you think the company should diversify onto other products or do you think the company should stick to the gum?
No diversification is planned. We have a single product, which is gum Arabic, either you make it in powder form and spray type form, which is the last stage of the processing. Then gum Arabic will be changed into other materials such as sweets or alcohol for example. We are actually merging in order to reinforce the processing of the raw gum while building a stronger economic base because we will be expecting a lot of competition whether inside the country or outside. We have also some sister companies outside the Sudan as well.
How successful has proved to be the combination of state capital and the private management in a country like Sudan, is it a good example for other industries?
You know, in African and Arab countries governments and investments are not successful. The gum Arabic company started as a private company, but later in 1969 the government declared some sort of nationalization and bought shares in the gum Arabic company, so that is why the government became a partner. But government investment has never been successful. Always private sector, particularly in international trade and export, has proved to be better compared to government sector. Whenever the government puts his hand in a project it fails, and I don't mean Sudan government, but any African or Arabic government.
Why is that the Asian markets are still not familiar with what gum Arabic represents? What is your strategy to let Asian consumers and companies know of the particular characteristics of gum Arabic?
We are using our industries all over South East Asia to promote this commodity. We are trying to attend to all the exhibitions, particularly food ingredients exhibitions in Asia. Last month, we went to China, and almost every month there is something in Asia, but I think now with this new relations between Sudan and China, Malaysia, people are getting to know about the importance of this material and they will transfer this knowledge to their people. What we actually need is to increase our production… there is a factor here which is the price; for example gelatin prices are far lower than those of gum Arabic. So, either we go down with the prices or we increase our production. Actually, production quantity in our country is related to the prices rather than to the value. On the other side, during the bad rainy seasons, we normally have big quantities, because the harvest time of gum Arabic goes beside the harvesting of other crops, so people would prefer to go harvest groundnuts, sesame and other crops, because this is a direct quickly crops they can eat, but they don't eat gum, they have to collect it then, dry it then sell it then after that they get no money… Now, when the rainy season is bad, people around there know they have to go and start with gum Arabic trees, so we are always happy when the rainy season comes.
Do you think there is a way to bring stability to production by encouraging those farmers?
You have to find a way to stabilize the production by reaching an agreement between the farmers and the landowners. You can always do that by letting the people stay and then finding other economic activities for them. We have thought of allocating private blocks of forest and some parks for gum Arabic production, but this is a culture, it is not something industrial; it's a culture that extended for thousand and thousands of years, it's not like wheat they product in Europe…when you grow the wheat and then you wait for the rain before harvesting. It's a thing that has a relation to the sociology of the farmers and the psychology and their mentality and the season. The culture is not something mechanical, it is something due to the psychology and sociology and the environment, you have to go and see the area, it's not like the soil of the grown wheat in the United States!
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