US embassy cable - 03ABUJA587

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ABUJA 000587 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USAID/W FOR AFR/WA, MICHAEL KARBELING 
USAID/W FOR EGAT/AA, EMMY SIMMONS 
USAID/W FOR AFR/SD, JEFF HILL 
STATE/W FOR AFW/WA, CALLI FULLER 
USTR/W FOR AFR/IT, FLORIZELLE LISER 
LAGOS FOR ADMIN 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: NI 
SUBJECT: GUM ARABIC EXPORTS FROM NORTHERN NIGERIA 
FACILITATED THROUGH USAID SUPPORT 
 
REF: NONE 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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Gum arabic is a key ingredient in a wide variety of 
products manufactured in the United States, and 
represents an environmentally-friendly export 
opportunity for Nigeria.  But while Nigeria possesses 
the resources to meet a significant portion of U.S. 
demand, poor processing capacity severely limits its 
ability export to the United States. USAID assistance 
is helping Nigeria to realize the export potential of 
gum arabic through improving harvesting and post- 
harvest handling techniques used by the industry in 
northern Nigeria, establishing market linkages with 
U.S. buyers, and providing laboratory equipment to 
certify gum arabic quality. In a ceremony attended by 
U.S. Ambassador Howard F. Jeter on February 26, 2003, 
laboratory equipment funded through the USAID project 
was handed over to the Jigawa State Gum Arabic 
Company.  The laboratory facility will enable gum 
arabic to be tested and certified to meet 
international quality standards, helping to ensure 
that the gum arabic produced in Nigeria is suitable 
for U.S. manufactures and guaranteing that Nigeria's 
gum arabic farmers and producers earn premium prices 
for their product. 
 
 
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BACKGROUND 
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Gum arabic is a key ingredient in a wide variety of 
U.S. manufactured products and industries, including 
soft drinks, baked goods and candies, cosmetics, 
pharmaceuticals, and printing (e.g., newspapers). 
Given its significance to U.S. manufacturers, the 
United States is the largest consumer of grade one 
(top grade) gum arabic, importing more than 60 percent 
of the world?s raw and processed supply. 
 
 
Gum arabic is a naturally occurring product that is 
exuded from the stems and branches of the acacia tree. 
More than 70 percent of the world?s supply is produced 
by Sudan on an annual basis.  However, U.S. sanctions 
against Sudan, initiated in 1997, mean that the U.S. 
manufactures have limited direct access to Sudanese 
gum arabic, with imports of raw gum arabic from Sudan 
dropping from more than 7,000 MT in 1990 to just over 
1,000 MT in 2002.  With demand for gum arabic in the 
United States increasing (overall imports of raw gum 
arabic have doubled since 2000 compared to the early 
1990s), U.S. manufactures have had to increasingly 
rely on intermediary countries for their supply.  For 
example, in 2002, France was the second largest 
exporter of raw gum arabic to the U.S., supplying more 
than one-third of the total imported that year.  All 
of this was imported by France, and subsequently 
exported to the United States. 
 
 
Given the importance of gum arabic to U.S. 
manufacturers, USAID has teamed with the U.S. private 
sector to diversify the supply of gum arabic, 
expanding the opportunity for direct imports and 
minimizing the impact of the rapidly changing 
political landscape in eastern Africa.  The initial 
project in this effort is a collaborative gum arabic 
sector development program in Nigeria, one of the 
friendly countries in the gum arabic belt of West 
Africa and, along with Sudan and Chad, one of the top 
three producers worldwide. 
 
 
The Nigerian gum arabic sector is substantially under- 
developed with respect to commercial production and 
marketing standards.  Nigerian gum is traditionally 
harvested from wild forests on public or private 
lands, and could benefit from an inherent price 
advantage over Sudan and Chad due to the county's port 
access.  But while Nigeria possesses the natural 
resources to supply at least one-third (5,000 MT) of 
current U.S. demand for raw gum arabic, poor harvest 
and post-harvest production capacity limit Nigeria's 
ability to export to the United States, which 
accounted for less than one percent (100 MT) of total 
U.S. imports in 2002. 
 
 
In addition to benefiting U.S. manufacturers, 
enhancing Nigeria's capacity to produce gum arabic 
will develop an economic opportunity for rural farmers 
in the Muslim North.  With low input costs (consisting 
largely of a rudimentary tapping tool, labor and 
transportation costs) and a value of between $1,000 
and $1,500 per MT, gum arabic is the most profitable 
crop in the region of northern Nigeria. Gum arabic 
producers earn between $0.27 and $0.35 per kg.   In 
comparison, other non-irrigated products that are 
grown in similar areas, including cowpeas, groundnuts, 
sesame, sorghum and millet, currently earn farmers 
between $0.19 and $0.27 per kg (with equal or higher 
input costs).  Given that competing crops earn less 
revenue and have comparable to moderately higher input 
costs, gum arabic harvesting would seem to be a 
rational choice of crop for farmers to concentrate on, 
perhaps in conjunction with one of the other food 
crops. 
 
 
Environmentally, by increasing the economic 
opportunities associated with old-growth acacia 
forests naturally occurring in Nigeria, improving gum 
arabic post-harvest production will encourage 
Nigeria's farmers to preserve existing forests which 
would otherwise be cut-down in order to plant other 
crops.  Similarly, increased production capacity will 
enhance the potential for including acacia trees in 
integrated and rotated cropping schemes, helping to 
reduce soil erosion, fix nitrogen, and recycle other 
nutrients lost to leeching from the top-soil. 
 
 
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USAID GUM ARABIC PROJECT 
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Beginning in early 2002, USAID initiated a project to 
improve the production and marketing of Nigerian gum 
arabic through strengthening gum arabic associations 
and enhancing the capacity of local private sector 
participants involved in gum arabic trading.  The 
training was conducted in five states in northern 
Nigeria (Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe).  The 
project has had strong collaboration from the U.S. 
private sector, which assisted with training in 
product standards, preparing training materials, and 
providing technical advice during training workshops. 
The project also included support to purchase and 
install laboratory equipment to certify the quality of 
the gum produced. 
 
 
The USAID program successfully trained approximately 
200 farmers and traders from the targeted states on 
the management of gum arabic plantations to improve 
output and marketing. These trained participants 
reported that they have extended information on best 
practices to a further 3,000 people. These trainings 
are already showing results. The most telling evidence 
of successful adoption of practices leading to 
increased productive capacity are the increased size 
of gum nodules, a reduction in the instances of 
adulteration, and the introduction of traceability 
techniques.  The use of improved tapping techniques by 
farmers allows gum to exude into larger nodules, which 
in turn is realized in increased volumes of grade one 
gum, which corresponds to a higher quality product as 
larger gum nodules are cleaner, easier to grade, sort 
and bag.  This increase in grade one volume has 
occurred despite problems of locusts and the wetter 
than usual rainy season, which have lowered overall 
gum production in the northern region.  Traders have 
reported that the gum they are buying is purer than it 
has been in recent years. 
 
 
The USAID program stimulated increased commercial 
interest in the gum producing states.  For instance, 
in Jigawa state, about 330 hectares of new plantations 
have been established, while 250,000 seedlings were 
raised as part of the state's long term strategy. This 
is in addition to the approximately 900 hectares of 
gum arabic in the state, some 500 hectares of which 
are being harvesting for export. In Yobe state, the 
Government during the year produced and distributed 10 
million seedlings with support from the National 
Association of Gum Arabic Producers, Processors and 
Exporters of Nigeria (NAGAPPEN). 
 
 
The program also supported the management of NAGAPPEN. 
This aspect of the program implementation has shown 
the most visible result.  NAGAPPEN has emerged as an 
association that is capable of effectively 
representing the gum arabic sector in each gum 
producing state and organizing economic activity 
through the monitoring and enforcement of improved 
practices.  Dues paying members, with no outside 
guidance, have initiated these chapters independently. 
The Association, which is less than two years old, now 
has over 2,000 dues-paying members. 
 
 
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LABORATORY EQUIPMENT CEREMONY, FEBRUARY 26, 2003 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
On February 26, 2003, USAID-funded laboratory 
equipment was formally presented to the Jigawa Gum 
Arabic Processing Company, Ltd. (GAPCO), at a ceremony 
attended by U.S. Ambassador Howard Jeter, and His 
Excellency, the Governor of Jigawa State, Saminu 
Turaki.  The laboratory is located at Maigatari Export 
Processing Zone (EPZ), in Jigawa State, and will serve 
the major processing zone of northern Nigeria, as well 
as neighboring countries, including Chad.  This 
quality control is essential in order to meet the 
quality standards demanded by buyers from the United 
States and Europe. 
 
 
U.S. Ambassador Howard Jeter cut the tape marking the 
official opening of the facility, and noted the strong 
need to enhance the Jigawa Gum Arabic Processing 
Company's production capacity, and to encourage 
farmers in the state to expand their capacity to 
provide a high quality product.  Apart from being a 
great source of employment, he said, the laboratory 
would "give importers greater confidence in the 
products they are buying". 
 
 
Ambassador Jeter reiterated that the Nigerian Gum 
Arabic Program is a win-win situation in which the 
U.S. industry would gain by diversifying its sources 
of gum arabic, thus minimizing risk, and the Nigerian 
farmers, traders and exporters would see a significant 
improvement in their incomes and employment from the 
development of the gum arabic sector. 
 
 
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REMARKS BY JIGAWA GOVERNOR 
-------------------------- 
His Excellency, the Governor of Jigawa State, Saminu 
Turaki, expressed satisfaction with the state's 
relationship with the United States and noted that the 
laboratory presentation had positioned Jigawa State to 
pursue further negotiations with TIC gums, a U.S. 
based firm that has negotiated a memorandum of 
understanding for the purchase of high quality gum. 
Governor Turaki said the gum arabic project was meant 
to enhance the economic status of the region, 
including Niger Republic, where some 10 million 
seedlings were recently distributed to farmers.  The 
regional outlook of the project, he said, would enable 
the producers to compete effectively in the 
international market.  Turaki said women who formed 
the larger percentage of the poor in the region would 
be mobilized to take part in the initiative. 
 
 
The participants to the ceremony toured the GAPCO 
warehouse and observed several tons of gum being 
sorted and graded in sacks with the GAPCO labels. 
This is the first commercial shipment of gum being 
exported from Jigawa state.  The gum acacia trees had 
been planted some 25 years ago for reforestation 
purposes, and its potential for gum arabic production 
had not been realized prior to this project.  The 
first year harvest and export is expected to be a 
modest 168 tons, but will undoubtedly grow due to the 
strong leadership of Jigawa state, private sector 
partnership with U.S. companies, and the enhanced 
capacity of Nigerian farmers to properly harvest the 
gum. 
 
 
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CONCLUSION 
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While production of premium-quality grade one gum 
arabic in Nigeria is still low, the potential for 
significantly expanding the production of gum arabic 
suitable for export to the United States articularly 
in terms of grade and quality is high. 
 
 
The USAID project has sought to educate farmers and 
traders on the comparative advantages of producing gum 
arabic.  By introducing best practices in cultivation, 
harvesting and marketing, trainees have learned to 
meet the specifications of U.S. importers, and have 
extended these practices to others in their locations. 
The sector is poised to be globally competitive 
through the establishment of NAGAPPEN chapters in each 
of the targeted states, which will be crucial to 
future dissemination of best practices, industry 
monitoring and self enforcement. 
 
 
USAID's program to improve the production of gum 
arabic in Nigeria is contributing to the strategic 
U.S. goal of diversifying sources of imports, while at 
the same time providing much needed income and foreign 
exchange earnings to farmers in northern Nigeria. 
JETER