The report finds near-uniform price increases across essentially every commodity group tracked in September 2026: wheat, sorghum, and millet rose sharply (wheat flour stable in the first week, then rising); lentils, rice, and pigeon peas all increased, with lentils and rice rising most; potato prices continued climbing while tomato prices fluctuated; meat, fish, and milk prices rose (eggs stayed relatively stable); and sugar, groundnuts, sesame, fava beans, and cooking oil all increased, with cooking oil and sesame rising most steeply. Agricultural input prices followed the same pattern — wheat and sorghum seed prices rose sharply, and urea and DAP fertilizer prices increased after an August plateau — as did fuel, where parallel-market diesel and petrol prices spiked in the final week of the month. Underlying this, the parallel-market exchange rate rose sharply against the US dollar while the official rate moved only slightly, widening the gap between the two considerably; daily wages for shop sellers, porters, and agricultural workers also rose, most notably for porters. Traders’ perceived availability generally weakened — the share reporting high availability fell for all cereals (sharpest for wheat), all three vegetables (sharpest for tomatoes), cooking oil, and urea — though it improved for lamb, chicken, beef, eggs, and fava beans. Prices varied substantially across states, with West Kordofan, South Kordofan, and the Darfur states repeatedly recording the highest levels for cereals, sugar, cooking oil, fava beans, and parallel-market fuel. On the trader-perception side (N=142, 72 percent medium-scale), 23 percent reported supply-chain or logistical challenges (down 4 points from August), 35 percent reported changing demand conditions (up from 28 percent), 21 percent reported financial and liquidity constraints (up from 15 percent), the share reporting rising profit margins fell to 27 percent from 36 percent, tax and fee payments edged up (39 percent federal, 88 percent state/local), and 68 percent intended to continue trading as usual over the next one to three months with 16 percent planning to increase volumes.
Read the full report here
