Travel Guide Mederdra

Located 65 km northeast of Rosso, Mederdra has lost the two riches that made it the most important town in Trarza until the end of the 19th century: the extraction of Nterert salt and the trade in gum arabic, derived from the acacia tree, a traditional resource of the region, and even of the country. Although Mauritania nowadays produces only about 500 tons of gum arabic per year, it was once on the podium: with an average annual production of 5,700 tons, Mauritania was the second largest exporting country in the world! Successive droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the rural exodus, have reduced these record figures.