Around 67,000 tonnes of wheat destined for Sudan are set to be loaded onto a vessel in France over the coming days, LSEG data showed on Thursday, in the first such shipment in 18 years.
A bulk carrier was due to have started loading on Wednesday at Rouen before topping up next week at Dunkirk, another northern French port, the data showed.
France, the European Union's biggest wheat producer, has not exported wheat to Sudan since August 2008, according to European Commission data.
Traders have been watching to see if importers will seek alternative supplies to Russian and Ukrainian grain following severe disruption to Black Sea trade due to an escalation in attacks on ports and vessels between Moscow and Kyiv.
It was not immediately clear if the French wheat cargo for Sudan represented a replacement for Russian or Ukrainian supplies, traders said.
But Russia has been by far the largest supplier to Sudan. In the first half of 2026, wheat imports from Russia were worth $341 million out of a total $381 million, figures from Sudan's central bank showed.
In volume terms, Sudan imported about 1.3 million tonnes in the first half of the year, according to the central bank.
The US Department of Agriculture expects Sudan's annual imports to reach 2.8 million tonnes in the 2026/27 season, maintaining an increase in import demand seen since the start of Sudan's civil war in 2023.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Joe Bavier)