What local dishes should I try in Sudan, and where should I look for them?

Sudanese eating is sorghum eating. FAO's Sudan country brief of 24 September 2026 identifies sorghum as the main staple, with millet and a small irrigated wheat crop alongside it. The 2025 national cereal output of sorghum, millet and wheat came to about 5.2 million tonnes, roughly 22% below 2024 and 19% below the previous 5-year average. The 2025 sorghum and millet harvest was completed in January 2026 and the small irrigated wheat harvest gathered in March 2026; 2026 planting concluded in mid-August with harvest beginning that November. Sennar and Gedaref together account for about a quarter of national sorghum output, which makes those 2 states the heartland of the national loaf.

Gum arabic is the other half of the story. FAO's assessment of Sudanese non-wood forest products identifies 2 species — Acacia senegal, known locally as hashab, and Acacia seyal, talha — worked across a gum belt of about 520,000 km² lying between latitudes 10°N and 14°N, with Sudan the major world producer and exporter at a share FAO puts at around 80% of global output. Yield runs at about 300 grams per tree per season. The same assessment catalogues a long list of wild food products gathered in the same belt, including nabag, laoub, gongliz, aradeib, gudeim, dom and doleib, with demand surveyed at 8,890 tonnes.

The present reality is scarcity, and the price record shows it starkly. FAO logged sorghum prices more than doubling on average between January and August 2026, millet rising about 77% over the same months and standing 68% higher year-on-year in August, and the national average diesel price nearly doubling between March and August 2026.

The gum belt is a band across the country's middle, between 10°N and 14°N, where acacia is tapped rather than farmed and the yield from a single tree is measured in a few hundred grams a season. The sorghum country east of it, in Sennar and Gedaref, is rain-fed cropland on a different scale entirely — a quarter of the national harvest between 2 states.

Buying anything in Sudan is a cash problem with specific rules, and they are unusually exact. The US International Trade Administration's guide records that most transactions are cash-based, that internationally issued credit cards are generally not accepted though some large hotels are beginning to take them, that Sudan has no international ATMs and local machines draw only on local banks, and that Western Union operates only in Khartoum. Travelers are advised to bring enough US dollars for the whole stay, in bills printed after 2006 and unblemished. Exchanging currency outside official banking channels is illegal and punishable by imprisonment and fines. Note that the same guide states both that yellow fever and cholera vaccinations are not required but recommended for visa applicants, and that a WHO card showing them is required when arriving from an infected area, without reconciling the two — the FCDO, separately, states that a yellow fever certificate is required to enter.

• Sennar and Gedaref — Sorghum country, producing about a quarter of the national crop.
• The gum belt — A band between 10°N and 14°N where hashab and talha acacia are tapped.
• Khartoum — The only place the guide identifies Western Union as operating, which matters in a cash economy.

The food situation is among the most severe anywhere. FAO assessed about 19.5 million people — over 40% of the analysed population — in IPC Phase 3 or worse for February to May 2026, including about 5 million in Phase 4 and 135,000 in Phase 5, and could not issue a nationwide projection for the June-to-September lean season because of data gaps, while identifying 14 areas in North Darfur, South Darfur and South Kordofan facing famine risk under a worst-case scenario. About 8.6 million people were internally displaced as of end-July 2026. Rainfall in June to September 2026 was below average over most cropping areas, with Sennar and Gedaref receiving about 20% and 30% less rain than their long-term averages, and FAO's Agricultural Stress Index showing severe drought on up to 55% of cropland in Sennar and 70% in Gedaref that September. Sudan's 2026 cereal import requirement was put at about 2.8 million tonnes, mainly wheat. Alongside all of that, the FCDO advises against all travel to parts of Sudan and warns of strict rules on goods taken into or out of the country.

The Sudan when-to-visit answer sets out the rainy season and the condition of the Meroe sites. For the visa sequence, the working week and internal travel permits, read the Sudan trip-planning question.