According to Reuters, the armed conflict in Sudan has not only caused a humanitarian crisis, but also made global carbonated beverage manufacturers anxious. Why are the seemingly unrelated two so closely connected? It all starts with the production of cola.
Sudanese Civil War. Source/CCTV News Client
History of the invention of cola
Now known as "fat house happy water", Coke has a development process of more than 100 years. The original birth form of "happy water" was a medicinal wine developed by mistake. In the mid-19th century, the United States was in a golden age of economic development, and many people made money by developing medicinal wine. Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton soaked coca leaves in wine for innovation. Coca leaves contain cocaine and are addictive. Subsequently, an explosive medicinal wine that was claimed to be refreshing and curing headaches was launched. However, with the enactment of the government's prohibition of alcohol, the way of making money from medicinal alcohol was interrupted. So Pemberton decided to remove the alcohol from the recipe and improve it again. This time, he added a lot of cane sugar to mask the bitterness of the new recipe, and also added soda by chance. Thus, the real Coca-Cola recipe was born. Pemberton's Coca-Cola formula was unexpectedly famous among headache patients at the time. Since Pemberton didn't say whether it was a potion or a drink, the new recipe didn't sell well right away. It was not until 1888 that Pemberton's formula was discovered by businessman Asa Candler, which became Coca-Cola.
Candler was originally a pharmacy businessman who was doing well, and after seeing the huge business opportunities hidden behind Coca-Cola, he gave up the pharmacy business altogether and focused on running Coca-Cola. In 1891, Candler's Coca-Cola Company gained a foothold in Atlanta, positioning Coca-Cola as a "soft drink" to expand its audience. At that time, Candler created a modern commercial popular celebrity endorsement marketing model, and also launched "Coca-Cola IP", such as bookmarks, wallets, etc., and the marketing techniques were dazzling. Candler has a motto: "Coca-Cola lost today will never be made up tomorrow." ”
A Coca-Cola store during World War II. Source/Chen Sijin "The predecessor of Coca-Cola, it turned out to be medicinal wine"
During Coca-Cola's domination of the beverage market, imitators flocked to the market. The world's first bottle of Pepsi was also born in the United States. In 1898, 12 years after Coca-Cola's "debut". Its taste is similar to the top-secret formula of Coca-Cola, so it took advantage of Coca-Cola to name it "Pepsi". The PepsiCo brand changed hands several times after bankruptcy and eventually became a competitor to Coca-Cola with clever marketing.
Pepsi advertising campaign during the war. Source/Chen Sijin "The predecessor of Coca-Cola, it turned out to be medicinal wine"
In the historical expansion of globalization, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have tried to seize the opportunity. Taking Coca-Cola as an example, from the perspective of its midstream supply side, Coca-Cola signed franchise agreements with bottling plants all over the world, and after purchasing concentrates, the bottling plants added water, sweeteners, carbonated water, etc. according to different products to make finished beverages, and filled them. At present, there are 275 Coca-Cola bottling plants worldwide, and Sudan's rich gum arabic is a key ingredient in the production of carbonated beverages such as cola.
A typical description of gum arabic in cola. Source/Research on the types and properties and functions of gum arabic
Gum arabic tree in Sudan
Gum arabic is widely used and is essential in the diet, pharmaceutical industry, and manufacture of pesticides, emulsifiers and medicinal oils. Carbonated drinks such as cola contain carbon dioxide, and gum arabic can reduce the surface tension of the liquid and facilitate the injection of a large amount of carbon dioxide, so it has gradually become a key raw material for the production of carbonated drinks. In addition, gum arabic is also used to emulsify and disperse essential oils and oil-soluble pigments to avoid pigment circles at the bottleneck due to the floating of essential oils and pigments during the storage of cola.
Acacia senegal. Source/Reuters
The main production area of gum arabic is in western Sudan, and its production and use have a long history. As early as the time of the pharaohs, the ancient Egyptians had widely used gum arabic. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the Egyptians used gum arabic to make dyes and pigments, as well as medicine and mummies. There are also records of gum arabic and its uses in many Pharaonic scrolls. Initially, people relied on the tree's natural cracks for glue, but this natural crack was not enough to provide a large amount of gum export. Later, it was found that when cutting branches, the gum tree could also flow out of the place where the gum tree was cut, even more than natural cracks, so artificial cracking was gradually used. Purposeful cracking allows for planned rubber picking, which will not run empty or allow the glue to flow into the sand, increasing production while ensuring quality.
The special adaptability of the gum arabic tree has made it inextricably linked to the land of Sudan. According to a U.S. gum arabic operator quoted by Reuters, "the preferred gum arabic ingredient is only found in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad." In general, the growth of gum trees is best suited in arid tropical areas with short rainy seasons and long dry seasons. The gum tree gets water by the short rainy season, and then makes gum in the tree, which is to rely on this gum to keep the water in the tree body from evaporating quickly during the long dry season. Among all gum trees, the hashab tree produces the best gum texture, and almost all countries in the world need gum of this variety. Its main source is in the province of Kordofan, west of the Nile. The province is sandy with annual rainfall between 280-450 mm. There, the hashab tree plays the role of fixing sand and maintaining water and soil, and the dryness of the sand and the large temperature difference make it easy for the gum condensed in the bark to flow out of it. They complement each other and complement each other.
Gum arabic. Photo by Elena Moiseeva, Source/Figureworm Creative
Due to the remoteness and isolation of the main production areas of gum arabic, it is quite difficult to ship gum arabic to foreign markets. However, there are many routes to transport gum arabic, such as from Kordofan to Dungula, then to Wadi Halifa, and via Egypt to ports on the Mediterranean or the Red Sea. Or transport first to Khartoum, then to Aswan via Berber and Abu Hamed ... Whichever route it takes, it is shipped from Sudanese origin to ports in Arab countries and then shipped around the world. Therefore, people call it "gum arabic". At the end of 1911, Sudan's railroad was built to Ubayid, the world's most important gum market at the time. Since then, the gum arabic forest area of Kordofan has been connected to the export terminal of Port Sudan.
In today's globalized world, one of Sudan's oldest commodities has become a hot commodity in the international market. The Sudanese government attaches great importance to the development of gum, and in Ubayid, Northern Kordofan Province, an important producer of gum arabic, the Sudanese government has established a gum arabic research center and formulated a plan to develop gum groves of 22,500 fedan (Egypt's land measurement unit, 1 fedan or 4,200 square meters) per year. In the vast land of Sudan, the area suitable for the growth of gum trees is as much as 67.34 million feidan, while the existing cultivation area is only 3.6 million feidan. Gum arabic also plays an important role in Sudan's exports, and it topped the list before long-fiber cotton became the backbone of Sudan's economy. Now, after long-fiber cotton, it occupies the second place in Sudan's exports; Annual production accounts for 80% of the world's total output, and exports account for 90% of the world's demand. These figures show that Sudan's crown of "the land of gum arabic" is well deserved.
Gum arabic in international politics
For the Sudan, agriculture is an important area of its diplomacy. In 2020, Sudan's agricultural value added was 20.9% of GDP. Cotton, gum arabic, as well as peanuts and sesame seeds, are the main cash crops exported in the world, accounting for 66% of Sudan's agricultural exports. Such a diplomatic pattern is inseparable from historical colonial rule.
In the 70s of the 19th century, British power expanded from Egypt to Sudan, and in 1899, the Anglo-Egyptian condominium administered Sudan. In order to make huge profits, Britain organized monopoly companies in 1926 and forced farmers to unilaterally develop crop cultivation, resulting in the abnormal development of Sudanese agriculture and making Sudan a raw material base for British industry and commerce. Decades of British colonization left serious consequences for the Sudanese economy after independence. Today, Sudan is still an agricultural country dominated by the production of single-crop cotton, with 85 per cent of the population living in agriculture. Sudan's crops are exported, making it a major source of foreign exchange, accounting for one-half of government revenue in the sixties of the 20th century. As another important product of Sudan, gum arabic is also exported to Europe and the United States.
After Sudan's independence, capitalist countries such as Britain still had a monopoly advantage in Sudan. The British consortium, centered on Barclays, largely controls Sudan's financial, insurance and shipping industries. Britain also had a monopoly on the export of gum arabic and bulk cotton, as well as the import of other goods. The United States, of course, is not to be outdone. According to Sudanese newspapers, in 1960 and later, the United States used US "aid" as bait to infiltrate Sudan and carry out cultural and educational aggression in an attempt to break into Sudanese institutions of higher learning.
The Government of the Sudan has been making various efforts to rid itself of the effects of the colonial economy. In September 1962, the Sudanese Minister of Finance and Economy announced that the Sudan had drawn up a 10-year plan for economic and social development, which stipulated that 260 projects would be built to strengthen and develop the Sudanese economy.
Schematic map of Sudan's location. Source/day map
Once Africa's largest country by land area and once one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, Sudan has been plagued by armed conflicts since independence. On April 15, local time, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Force engaged in fierce armed clashes in the capital Khartoum and other places. Nor is this the first time that serious armed conflict has erupted in Sudan: in 2008, rebels from Sudan's Darfur region attacked the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, resulting in civilian casualties; In 2011, the Sudanese government army and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) continued to exchange fire in the Abu Yei area, and the Soviet government army captured the Afghan area and announced the dissolution of the local transitional management institutions. Until the escalation of the conflict in April this year, the armed conflict in the Sudan has become a security issue of general concern to the international community.
Carbonated beverage companies that rely on gum arabic have long-term reserves of gum arabic, which is also a helpless move to deal with the frequent armed conflict in Sudan. However, at present, existing reserves are no longer able to support the huge consumption of carbonated beverages in the world, according to Reuters, if the war in Sudan continues to interrupt gum arabic exports, global cola stocks are likely to be depleted in 3 to 6 months. According to the American company of gum arabic, because of the war, they could not go to buy gum arabic, and it was difficult to import. Savannah Life in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, said it had orders for 60 to 70 tonnes of gum arabic, but it was worried about whether it could ship on schedule due to the civil war.
Residents of Khartoum (Sudan's capital): All petrol stations have ceased service, and when fuel is available, it is only sold on the black market. Source/CCTV News Client
From the Sudanese civil war to the supply and marketing of cola, the transmission between the two is like a butterfly effect, and the changes in the distance have driven the chain reaction of the entire cola production chain. Sudan's civil war can affect the supply of coke, and you can imagine how traumatic it has been to the people of the local and neighboring countries.
Source: WeChat public account "National Humanities and History"
Author: Ma Zichen
Edit: Yifan
[Statement: This number is the official public welfare account of "National Reading Promotion", and this article is reproduced for the purpose of conveying more information. If the source is incorrectly marked or suspected of infringing your legitimate rights and interests, please contact us. We will correct and delete in time, thank you. 】