Post by Trade facilitator on Feb 9, 2011 4:14:05 GMT 1
Gum Arabic: Gum Arabic is a natural gum harvested from the exterior of Acacia trees in the form of dry, hard nodules up to 50mm in diameter, and ranging from almost colourless to brown. Nigeria is the 2nd largest producer of the corp in the world, after producer of the crop in the world, after Sudan, with an average production of 20,000 metric tones of all grades of Gum Arabic. Gum Arabic is harvested during the dry season because during the rainy season production of Gum Arabic covers 14 states of the Federation namely Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, bauchi, Gomber, Taraba, Plateau, Adamawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara. Nassarawa and Niger with an estimated population of 4 million Nigerians engaged in its cultivation and trade. Gum Arabic is used as thickeners, suspender, emulsifier, stabilizer, flavour carrier, binder and encapsulating material., The Major markets for the product are: Belgium, China, USA, UK and Japan. The export price (FOB price per MT) for the first grade is USD2,800 to USD3,200; the second grade price is USD 1,850 to USD2,200 while the price for the third grade is USD900 to USD1,100., The local price of gum Arabic ranges from about N100,000 in dry season during the harvest to about N170,000/MT in the rainy season, depending on the location of purchase and the period during its season. The return on investment of this commodity is 34.8%.
