The challenging season for Egyptian Mangoes

In the first week of July, the Egyptian press reported on the low mango yields this year, based on reports from growers in Ismailia, home to about one-third of Egyptian mangoes crops.

Heat and black mould have been causing problems for Egyptian mangoes

Mangoes see a high demand domestically. According to Kamal Fathi, agriculture officials in Ismailia did not deny that there had been problems with the mango harvest this year, confirming complaints by farmers about the “black mold” that has infected some mango groves and reduced yields, director of agriculture in Ismailia.

Fathi added that another reason for the lower yield of the mango crop this year was climate change, as the heatwave that slammed the east of the country in March had stressed the trees, increased evaporation from the soil, and dried out the roots. The fruit had fallen from the trees prematurely and quickly spoiled because it was unripe, he said.

“This year, we are planting 300,000 fedans of mangoes and some one million farmers and workers are servicing the groves all year round, whether for export or distribution on the domestic market,” Mahmoud Atta, director of the Central Department of Horticulture at the Ministry of Agriculture in Cairo told english.ahram.org.