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

middleeastmonitor.com

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

#41

Post by BurningFrog »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #21

If you don't want your corporation's supply chain at risk, maybe use your lobbying dollars to ask the executive branch to actually support foreign nations rather than let them fall into civil war. Sudan has had a military dictatorship from 1989-2019 (led by Omar al-Bashir). In 2017, both President Obama and President Trump lifted sanctions on Sudan, after al-Bashir reneged on a promise to step down just two years ear…

Pretty sure the Sudanese civil wars are due to conflicts within Sudan, not US foreign policy.

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

#43

Post by frereubu »

ipsum2 wrote: post #38
ceejayoz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60% of IV fluids used in the US came from a single manufacturing plant that got hit by a hurricane last year. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/11/19/nx... My wife gets regular infusions and had to ration for months; the local hospital canceled elective surgeries as well.

IV fluids aren't even difficult to produce compared to gum arabic, its just different salts in water. This is just pure government regulation causing rationing and harming people. For those downvoting me, here's the American Medical Association: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/fixin... > The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act “to help speed up recovery efforts and get t…

With respect, any time someone writes "just" in a sentence like this I'm immediately suspicious that it comes from a place of ignorance. What is your qualification to make such a sweeping statement?

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

#44

Post by Aloisius »

staplung wrote: post #30
jmkd wrote: post #5

80% of the world's supply comes from Sudan...that is certainly a surprise. I'd love to see a table of some of the world's most essential goods that have 80% or more reliance on a single market.

~70% of the world's phosphate reserves are in Morocco. Considering how important phosphates are to the entire planet's food security I'd rate it near the top of the list. Practically speaking, phosphates are a non-renewable resource.

Only ~13% of the world's phosphate is mined in Morocco today, so it's a rather different situation.

And of course, phosphate reserves are only a small portion (0.02%) of the world's estimated phosphate resources.

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

#45

Post by rootsudo »

frereubu wrote: post #43
ipsum2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IV fluids aren't even difficult to produce compared to gum arabic, its just different salts in water. This is just pure government regulation causing rationing and harming people. For those downvoting me, here's the American Medical Association: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/fixin... > The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act “to help speed up recovery efforts and get t…

With respect, any time someone writes "just" in a sentence like this I'm immediately suspicious that it comes from a place of ignorance. What is your qualification to make such a sweeping statement?

1. You can read the ingreendients of IV fluid. 2. You can go online to different markets to see availability. 3. You can look up regulation to see if there are FDA limits that force USA health care to go to a specific vendor or approved vendor.

It is very much known that you can arbitrage medical costs, drug costs by going to Canada and Mexico. It is very much also very simple to research, search and find vendors or manufacturers located outside different geographic areas.

Therefore, your "qualifications" rebuttal becomes nil, this is basic adult literacy.

Call it economics/subsitution research, call it being informed, or just googling.

It is very much not ignorance but a very valid question to a very valid concern - most market restrictions are not because of "safety" (unfortunately, but it does become a boogey man) or "non-availability" (there is supply, but it isn't allowed.) but because it benefits some one/some company financially.

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

#46

Post by bpodgursky »

oersted wrote: post #9

And yet Gum Arabic is extremely cheap for the amounts needed. At $4-$7 per Kg in the US, the cost per Coke can would be in the order of 0.025 cents (guesstimate). This is interesting considering that 80% of the supply comes from Sudan. It is a nearly universal ingredient in processed foods and professional kitchens. I wonder how the economics work to push the price down. EDIT: Apparently naturally abundant Acacia tre…

> I suppose if Sudan tried to squeeze their monopoly other suppliers would easily come up in other regions.

There are a lot of goods like this, where the market has consolidated around the cheapest supplier for convenience but if that supplier disappeared the next-cheapest one would be fine at 10% more. It looks like a catastrophic chokepoint on the economy but it's really not a big deal.

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

#47

Post by throw94040 »

frereubu wrote: post #43
ipsum2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IV fluids aren't even difficult to produce compared to gum arabic, its just different salts in water. This is just pure government regulation causing rationing and harming people. For those downvoting me, here's the American Medical Association: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/fixin... > The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act “to help speed up recovery efforts and get t…

With respect, any time someone writes "just" in a sentence like this I'm immediately suspicious that it comes from a place of ignorance. What is your qualification to make such a sweeping statement?

With respect, parent comment is right. It is "just" destiled water with some salts. You also have to remove dissolved gasses and store it in good bags. Tricky part are contaminants and paperwork.

We had similar situation in communist czechoslovakia. There was a plan to manufacture female hygiene products, in a single factory for entire country. This factory burned down on second year of five year plan. So for some time our ladies were forced to use toilet paper. We still managed to make IV fluids though!

My guess US planning is a bit similar. Too special to import medical supplies from neighbours or from Europe.

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

#48

Post by hnlmorg »

bena wrote: post #19
hnlmorg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because the article is about how this important ingredient is smuggled rather than a list of ingredients for popular drinks and snacks. And also probably because the article is featured on general audience site rather than a scientific or culinary journal. I get that people hate clickbait headlines but this is hardly misleading, impossibly vague nor exaggerated.

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

Sure. But now you have a more verbose heading that places the emphasis (by being earlier in the title) on information that’s not actually relevant to the article itself. While also making is sound less accessible to the general audience of that specific website.

In short, that’s not an improvement.

This is a classic case of the HN crowd not understanding that different audiences are interested in different details.

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

#49

Post by staplung »

droideqa wrote: post #37
WillAdams wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, China quit exporting them a couple of years ago. Moreover, they are famously the limiting element in Isaac Asimov's thought-experiment of converting the earth's crust into biomass.

Ooh, I would like to learn/see links about that!

I think it's sort of a companion bit to the short story 2430 A.D. The story line is a bit different but the internet suggests that as an addendum or companion article he did a kind of back of the envelope calculation going from the elemental composition of the earth's crust to maximum biomass. Basically, you'd run out of phosphorus first. Much of the crust would still remain because silicon and aluminum are mostly unused and although iron is used, there's still far too much of it after you run out of phosphorus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2430_A.D.

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

#50

Post by ceejayoz »

ipsum2 wrote: post #38
ceejayoz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60% of IV fluids used in the US came from a single manufacturing plant that got hit by a hurricane last year. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/11/19/nx... My wife gets regular infusions and had to ration for months; the local hospital canceled elective surgeries as well.

IV fluids aren't even difficult to produce compared to gum arabic, its just different salts in water. This is just pure government regulation causing rationing and harming people. For those downvoting me, here's the American Medical Association: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/fixin... > The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act “to help speed up recovery efforts and get t…

There’s a little more to it than that when making something that gets injected directly to the bloodstream, often in medically compromised patients.
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