On the Hoof - Livestock Trade in Darfur

large-scale traders and companies based incentral Sudan, many of which havepreferential access to credit and services.Darfuri camel traders in El Fasherdescribe how the camel export businessto Egypt has been taken over by tradersfrom Dongola and companies fromNorthern State. Political affiliation canbring certain benefits such as taxexemption, and makes it hard for Darfuritraders to compete, resonating with thefindings of an earlier study:The danger is that the Darfuri privatesector is being gradually weakenedand squeezed out by more favouredcommercial interests from CentralSudan, undermining Darfur’s capacityto recover from the conflict oncepeace is restored. (Buchanan-Smith etal., 2011, 11)(4) the drop in livestock supplied to themarket compared with the pre-conflictyears is another reason why there arefewer traders engaged in this business.This is partly a consequence of manyformer livestock producers becomingdisplaced and no longer owningsignificant numbers of livestock.Small-scale livestock traders are most likely tohave gone out of business, and many exampleswere raised during interviews for this study.Larger-scale livestock traders are also at risk ofgoing out of business. The cameo of a formersheep trader from El Fasher, who went out ofbusiness in 2008, is a good example of thechallenges faced. See Box 7. Some livestocktraders have chosen to “downshift;” for example,to become sebaba or butchers, which also reducestheir need to be mobile. For traders of certainethnicities who no longer feel able to move safelybetween markets or to trade on a significant scale,this option has enabled them to stay in thelivestock business but to operate out of onelocation.Exceptionally, in three markets there appear tobe more livestock traders in 2011 compared withthe pre-conflict years. In Geneina market, asubstantial increase in traders in camels and cattlewas reported, most of whom are from differentArab tribes, some of whom have become livestocktraders for the first time. A number of these newtraders made their money renting houses andvehicles to members of the internationalcommunity and have then invested in thelivestock trade; some have the backing ofgovernment. However, as the number of livestocktraded in Geneina has fallen during the conflictBox 7.Cameo of a sheep trader who went out of business in North DarfurThis sheep trader started business in 1993 and used to export between 1,000 and 2,000sheep per year from North Darfur to Omdurman. One of the long-term constraints facingDarfuri (and other) traders who trek animals to Omdurman is the system of payment at theterminal market. Payments are often deferred by as much as six months. Negotiating powerbetween the trader and exporter in Omdurman is highly unequal. It is not unusual forexporters to ask the trader to wait with his animals for 10 to 15 days before a deal is secured,thus incurring feed and water costs for the Darfuri trader. The animals often lose weight in theprocess, and the trader is eventually forced to agree to the terms dictated by the exporter.Before the conflict years, on two occasions in the 1990s (1997 and 1998) this trader lost over$50,000 in total when the exporter to whom he sold the sheep in Omdurman defaulted onpayments. In the 1990s, he was able to survive these setbacks, but during the conflict years theadditional pressures of insecurity, increased taxes and levies in different localities, and instabilityin the export market, as well deferred payments by exporters, meant that sheep trading becameuntenable. In 2008, he stopped trading in livestock and is now involved in the grocery tradeinstead.Source: interview in El Fasher, March 2011June 2012 • ON THE HOOF: The Livestock Trade In Darfur 37