How to support Sudanese businesses in your daily life? – a guide through Khartoum.

I am getting up. First things first: coffee! I am choosing between Brasilian, Ethiopian and Sudanese coffee, all imported, grinded and packaged by the owner of this small café called Al SHAHBAA in Mashtal Street in Alryadth. He speaks German surprisingly and tells me that also the supermarket next to the café is selling the Sudanese coffee, even with a branded and nice packaging. I am storing the coffee already at home, so no need to go there this morning.

After my yoga session I am preparing my breakfast with fresh fruits, LINO cereals and a glass of pineapple juice from PR1MO. For a snack in between I take the Syrian bread from that Bakery in Mashtal Street and the ALGHOUTA Creamcheese. Before dressing, I am treating my (way too!) dry hair with the moisturizing spray from AVERA. Putting over my cape from SHAMS ATELIER and here we go. Ready to go to the office.

Introducing regional and Sudanese products into my daily life has become easy for me. Within the day, I am able to support around 5 to 10 Sudanese businesses. Just by normal consumption. Do you want to follow this initiative?

Then go ahead …

Throughout my life in Sudan I have always worked in private sector promotion projects – firstly with GIZ, now with a startup incubator and a Sudanese social entreprise. Within this network, I am getting to know a lot of Sudanese brands and Sudanese people who start producing their own products and services that are of high quality. So for sure, I want to let you know about them. But. There is big but!

As Alanfal supermarket is my main daily food supplier , I realized quickly that I can not find those Sudanese products easily there. I would walk around, stand in front of this massive shelf and try to identify every chickpea can and where it is produced. Sudan – 0. Even one day, I would ask one of my Sudanese friends to go with me, to help me with identifying the origin of different products. Why all this effort?

Since I joined 249startups and started working with Solar Foods, I understood how many amazing people are out here, putting all their heart in high quality products and how me starting being a client or a consumer for them, makes a big difference in their business growth. And with that a difference for the Sudanese community and private sector. But (and here it is) it’s not so easy to find or buy those products with limited arabic reading and/or speaking knowledge. This is why I am starting this initiative and series of introducing products to you, describing where to find them and how to buy them.

During the next weeks, I am going to publish a series of “How to support Sudanese businesses in Khartoum” on my public blog – focusing on different topics like Beauty, Food, Cafe&Restaurant, Art and others. I am also sharing with you upcoming bazar’s and events where you can find them all together gathered in a space to sell their products to you.

Please feel free to send me requests for more topics or product types or share your favorite Sudanese product, so that I can add it to my list and include it in my next article. Please note: this is no paid partnership, I am doing this as a private initiative, so all selected brands are selected because I got to know them and like to use them 🙂

For the start, find the Sudanese brands and products mentioned in the text above:

SHAHBAA COFFEE – get it here https://goo.gl/maps/xsXd2HoiRJctMs2a7 and in the supermarket next to it.

LINO cereals – you got me, it’s an Egyptian brand, but better support Egyptian than Kellogg’s Company 🙂 – you can get in all major supermarkets that you might know already: Al Anfal, Al Amarat Center, Al Hawi.

PR1MO Juice – as Sudanese are known to put too much sugar in everything, for my taste this juice is also to sweet, but mixing 50/50 with water, its very taste. And a Sudanese alternative to imported juices. It’s available in all bigger supermarkets.

ALGHOUTA Creamcheese – is an amazing Sudanese alternative to Kiri Cheese. Also available in all major supermarkets. Additional to creamcheese, they also have butter and other dairy products but I did not try them yet.

AVERA – a female-run small business – home-made-production of 3 main products with Aloe Vera as a basis – this is her page and online-shop: https://www.instagram.com/avera.sd/?hl=de you can order online, but her products are also in some pharamcies in Khartoum. You can message her, she speaks English fluent and is happy to help.

SHAMS Atelier – https://www.instagram.com/shamssatelier/?hl=de
Shams creates her own fashion and created a brand around it. Check her page for her designs.

249startups – https://www.linkedin.com/company/249startups/ – a Sudanese business providing services such as incubation, acceleration, co-working space and coaching to other Sudanese businesses on their way to grow and fly

Solar Foods – https://solar-foods.com – a social entreprise offering a variety of dried products – such as garlic powder, dried tomato or dill and mint. Available in most major supermarkets in Khartoum.

#supportsmallbusinesses

Take Action!

1. Subscribe to my blog, follow me on instagram (@resbloggt) or stay tuned here in this group for the next article of this series “How to support Sudanese businesses in your daily life”.
2. Let me know about Sudanese products you are trying to find.
3. Share with me your favorite Sudanese product.
4. Tell me, if you need pictures of the mentioned products, I can put them in the comments.
5. Most imporant: open your eyes during your next “running errands” and try out some Sudanese products!

Yours, Theresia