Bread Prices Double in Sudan After Currency Hits Record Low

By Al Mayadeen English

Sudan imports most of its wheat and fuel, so the pound’s fall to a record low of over 10,500 per dollar feeds straight into the price of bread. UN-backed reports warn famine could reach eight cities by 2027.

The price of a loaf of bread in Khartoum has doubled from 250 to 500 Sudanese pounds in a week, following a record depreciation of the currency and shortages of fuel and flour, which have closed most bakeries in the capital, AFP reported.

The Sudanese pound has lost about 25 percent of its value against the US dollar over the past month, and since Sudan imports most of its wheat, the price of flour follows the exchange rate. 

The currency reached a record low of more than 10,500 pounds to the dollar before recovering to about 10,200 on Wednesday, compared with 500 to the dollar in 2023, when the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began.

Households cut back on bread

AFP reported that some families in Khartoum now spend close to their entire income on bread. Sawsan Mahmoud, a 44-year-old mother of three, said she and her husband set aside 900,000 pounds ($88) a month for it, almost the sum of their two salaries. “The situation has become unbearable,” she told the agency, adding that the family now eats bread with one meal a day.

Meat has become harder to afford as well. A kilogram costs between 50,000 and 70,000 pounds, shopper Al-Muradi Awad told AFP, so a buyer who once took two kilograms now takes 125 grams.

Bakeries forced to close

On the other end, bakers in the capital described a market with almost no flour. Mohammed al-Fateh, who runs a bakery in Khartoum, said many bakeries have shut because flour is unavailable, and that people can spend a day or two at a distribution center and return with nothing.

Another baker, Mutawakil Ahmed Babiker, said the price of flour has doubled and power cuts force him to buy fuel for a generator. He sells a loaf for 500 pounds, below its cost, and cannot raise the price given his customers’ circumstances. He said he will most likely close the bakery.

Residents of the capital are again lining up at public kitchens for free meals, AFP reported. Many of these kitchens had stopped operating after the army retook Khartoum and drove out the RSF in March 2025.

The Ombada Emergency Room, which coordinates community kitchens in Omdurman, warned that need is spreading to thousands more families and displaced people, and that food shortages and rising prices are putting even one meal a day out of reach.

Fuel shortages

Khartoum and parts of eastern Sudan are suffering widespread power outages after repeated RSF drone attacks on power stations, AFP reported.

Fuel is also scarce. A civil servant, Yasser Mohammed, told the agency he had waited outside a gas station since 6 am and still had no petrol by 4 pm, which cost him a day of work. 

Sudan imports most of its fuel, and the weaker pound has reduced the government’s capacity to pay for it.

Famine warnings widen

The central bureau of statistics put the poverty rate at 80 percent and last year’s inflation at 99 percent. International organizations have warned that famine, already declared in parts of the country, could spread, while about 20 million people face severe food insecurity.

UN-backed reports say more than 200,000 people in South Kordofan and North Darfur are experiencing famine, and warn it could reach eight cities by 2027.

Outside Khartoum, most wheat arrives as aid, but fuel shortages, rising prices, and road closures caused by the fighting block deliveries.

The army controls Khartoum and central and eastern Sudan, while the RSF holds the Darfur region in the west and parts of the south.