How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan

London/Dubai: Gum arabic, a vital ingredient used in everything from Coca-Cola to MM's sweets, is increasingly being trafficked from rebel-held areas of war-torn Sudan, traders and industry sources say, complicating Western companies' efforts to insulate their supply chains from the conflict. Sudan produces around 80 per cent of the world's gum arabic, a natural substance harvested from acacia trees that's widely used to mix, stabilise and thicken ingredients in mass-market products including L'Oreal lipsticks and Nestle petfood. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war since April 2023 with Sudan's national army, seized control late last year of the main gum-harvesting regions of Kordofan and Darfur in western Sudan. Since then the raw product, which can only be marketed by Sudanese traders in return for a fee to the RSF, is making its way to Sudan's neighbours without proper certification, according to conversations with eight producers and buyers who are directly involved in gum arabic trading or based in Sudan.

The gum is also exported through informal border markets, two traders told Reuters.

Asked for comment, a RSF representative said that the force had protected the gum arabic trade and only collected small fees, adding that talk of any lawbreaking was propaganda against the paramilitary group. Last month, the RSF signed a charter with allied groups establishing a parallel government in the parts of Sudan it controls.

In recent months, traders in countries with lower-gum arabic production than Sudan, such as Chad and Senegal, or which barely exported it before the war, like Egypt and South Sudan, have begun to aggressively offer the commodity at cheap prices and without proof it is conflict-free, two buyers who have been approached by traders told Reuters. While the acacia trees that yield gum arabic grow across the Africa's arid Sahel region - known as the 'gum belt' - Sudan has become by far the world's biggest exporter due to its extensive groves.

Herve Canevet, Global Marketing Specialist at Singapore-based supplier of speciality food ingredients Eco-Agri, said it was often difficult to determine where gum supplies are coming from as many traders would not say if their product has been smuggled.

"Today, the gum in Sudan, I would say all of it is smuggled, because there's no real authority in the country," he said.

The Association for International Promotion of Gums (AIPG), an industry lobby, said in a January 27 public statement it "does not see any evidence of links between gum (arabic) supply chain and the competing (Sudanese) forces."

However, five industry sources said the opaque new trade in gum risked infiltrating the procurement system of global ingredients makers. Companies like Nexira, Alland Robert, and Ingredion buy a refined version of the amber-colored gum, turn it into emulsifiers and sell it to big consumer goods firms.

Contacted by Reuters, Ingredion said it works to ensure that all supply chain transactions are fully legitimate and has diversified sourcing since the start of the war to include other countries such as Cameroon.

Nexira told Reuters the civil war prompted it to cut its imports from Sudan and take proactive measures to mitigate the impact of the conflict on its supply chain, including broadening sourcing to ten other countries.

Alland Robert, Nestle and Coca Cola did not comment. MMs maker Mars and L'Oreal did not return requests for comment.

Cheap gum for sale

Mohammed Hussein Sorge, founder of Khartoum-based Unity Arabic Gum, which served global ingredients makers before the war, said he was offered gum arabic in December by traders in Senegal and Chad.

He said the Chad-based traders wanted $3,500 per tonne for hashab gum, a more expensive variety of gum arabic primarily produced in Sudan, for which he would normally expect to pay more than $5,000 per tonne.

The sellers could not provide a Sedex certification, which ensures buyers a supplier meets sustainable and ethical standards, Sorge also told Reuters.

Sorge did not buy the gum because he feared the low price and lack of documentation was an indication it had been stolen in Sudan or exported via informal RSF-affiliated networks.

"Smugglers manage to smuggle gum arabic through the RSF because the RSF controls all production areas," Sorge said.

Sorge, who fled to Egypt after RSF forces stole his entire gum supply in 2023, shared WhatsApp messages with Reuters showing these gum traders had reached out on five separate occasions, including as recently as January 9. Since October, the RSF banned exports for 12 goods to Egypt, including gum Arabic, in retaliation for what it said was Egyptian airstrikes against the militia.

Asked for comment, the paramilitary said it banned what it called smuggling to Egypt because it was not benefiting Sudan.

A buyer, who declined to be named for safety reasons, recounted how he also was approached by shadowy gum traders.

"I have (acacia) seyal cleaned open quantities ready for shipping," read one WhatsApp message, reviewed by Reuters and offering a load of seyal gum, a cheaper gum arabic variety. In subsequent WhatsApp messages, the trader proposed to schedule shipping every two months at a negotiable price of $1,950 per metric tonne, lower than the $3,000 per tonne the buyer said he would expect to pay for this kind of load.

In a different WhatsApp conversation with the same buyer, reviewed by Reuters, a different trader said that trucks carrying gum arabic had crossed the Sudanese border into South Sudan and Egypt.

In all instances, the gum traders could not provide a Sedex certification, the buyer said, adding that he declined the offers for fear the gum came from RSF-affiliated networks.

Changing routes

Before the Sudanese civil war, the raw gum would be sorted in Khartoum and then trucked to Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, to be shipped via the Suez Canal around the world.

Since late last year, however, RSF-affiliated gum Arabic started to appear on sale at two informal markets on the border between the Sudanese province of West Kordofan and South Sudan, according to a buyer based in an RSF-controlled area, who declined to be named due to safety concerns.

The buyer, a major trader in the West Kordofan area, said traders collect gum from Sudanese land owners and sell them to South Sudanese traders in these markets for US dollars. All of this happens with RSF protection, which the traders pay for, the buyer added.

Abdallah Mohamed, a producer who owns acacia groves in West Kordofan, also told Reuters the RSF takes a fee from the traders for protection. The paramilitary group has diversified its interests into gold, livestock, agriculture and banking.

South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei, who is also the government's spokesperson, told Reuters transport of gum through South Sudan was not the government's responsibility. Calls and messages to Joseph Moum Majak, the minister of trade and industry for South Sudan, went unanswered.

The RSF also takes the product to the Central African Republic through the border town of Um Dafoog, the buyer said, adding that some goes to Chad. A wholesale buyer, based outside Sudan, told Reuters the gum was now being exported through Mombasa in Kenya and South Sudan's capital Juba.

Arabic gum of illicit origin has also appeared on sale online. Isam Siddig, a Sudanese gum processor who is now a refugee in Britain, told Reuters his warehouses in Khartoum had been raided by the RSF after he fled in April 2023 with three suitcases of gum in tow.

A year later, his gum products appeared on sale, still in his company's branded packaging, in an online Facebook group according to a screenshot shared with Reuters.