Perched upon the tranquil waters of the Suez Canal lies ‘the city of charm and beauty,’ Ismailia. Snugly situated between Suez to the south and Port Said to the north, Ismailia is a city rich in culture.
The governorate by the same name, of which Ismailia city is the capital, has been inhabited since ancient times. Modern Ismailia was founded in 1863 by its namesake, Khedive Ismail, during the construction of the Suez Canal.
The city is known for many things, not least of which is “The Battle of Ismailia” in 1952, where Egyptian police forces resisted a British assault on city hall after rejecting their call to evacuate the area and surrender their weapons. 50 Egyptians were killed and the day became National Police Day on 25 January.
Ismailia is also known for its famous International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts.
“The Ismailia Festival is one of the oldest festivals in the Arab world and the first Arab festival that specializes in documentaries and short films,” the festival’s website says. The 25th edition was held from February 28 to March 5, 2024..
What the city is most known for, however, is its production of the most delicious mangoes that can be found anywhere in Egypt.
‘The king of fruits’ reigns supreme in Ismailia, ascending to its throne in the hot months to cast a glorious shadow over all summertime fruits, allowing people far and wide to enjoy a long-awaited treat.
Then, the season ends, and mango-loving Egyptians look forward to the next summer to reconnect with what seems to be their one true love.
However, for the people of Ismailia, mango never ends; a new season merely begins, one of hard work and year-long preparation for the harvest. For mango farmers, it is a full-time undertaking, a lifelong commitment, and a way of life.
Saleh Mohamed Seleiman, 58, a mango farmer from the Gabal Mariam region of the Ismailia governorate, knows that all too well.
“We were born and found ourselves in this field, in mango, mango work, and mango farming,” Seleiman tells Egyptian Streets.
Magnifera Indica L
Mangifera indica L, or mango, is a global favorite. It is said to have originated in the Indian subcontinent some four-to-six thousand years ago.
“Historical records and palaeo-botanical evidence provide ample proof about its origin in the Indo-Burma-Malay region,” write horticulturalists Deependra Yadav and SP Singh.
From there, it spread to China by the seventh century, arrived in East Africa around the 10th century and in the rest of Africa in the 16th century, Brazil in the 18th century, followed by Mexico in the first half of the 19th century and the United States in the latter half.
“Geographic spread of mango was essentially completed in the last half of the 19th Century with its introduction to such far flung places as Florida, Hawaii, Fiji, Queensland and Natal,” Yadav and Singh assert.
Indeed, in Egypt, the fruit that would become most popular was introduced by ruler Muhammad Ali in the 19th century.
In 1825, Muhammad Ali brought mango shrubs with him from his travels to India and Sri Lanka and planted a tree in what would become the garden of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ain Shams University.
Eventually, Ismailia became famous for its delicious mangoes.
“God has blessed Ismailia with mangoes, and after mangoes, strawberries,” Seleiman says. Mangoes for summer and strawberries for winter—a perfect tag-team.
The farmer attributes the governorate’s success with the fruit to the nature and quality of its soil. Mangoes thrive in Ismailia because “its soil is sandy, unlike the rest of Egypt’s governorates.”
“The brown soil of the Delta won’t work with mangos, mango trees like light, sandy soil,” he says.
Nonetheless, competition between regions is rising.
“Today the Se’eid (south of Egypt) has mango, the Ismailia Sahrawy [road] has mango. Most of the Sahrawy’s land has started planting mangoes.”
“It is the same quality but Ismailia has a reputation for quality mango production […] Ismailian mango has a different taste, unlike any other,” Seileiman adds.
“It’s all mango, but Ismailia’s is known for its taste.”
The harvest season starts in July and ends in August, but some types of mangoes, particularly the foreign strains such as Keitt, are harvested in September and even October. In Ismailia, most of the production is of local strains such as Zebda, Eweiss, and Sukkary, Seileiman says, though farmers have begun to intensify their diversification efforts and produce foreign strains in response to climate change.
Harvest is a joyful occasion for the city. The summer season is buzzing with activity and fresh mangoes—not to mention the Ismailia Mango Festival.
The Ismailia Mango Festival
During the festival, Ismailia is a city in celebration mode. With anticipation in the air all morning and organizers hard at work in front of city hall and the other various venues of the festival, the show usually begins with a bang.
The festival, which celebrated its third edition this August, features parades and a hodgepodge of entertaining performances. In August 2023, from local rollerbladers jumping on top of each other and a freestyle footballer doing tricks to several folkloric dancing troupes, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator, and, finally, a giant mobile mango—the parade had it all.
Families and friends in Ismailia could be seen picnicking and enjoying the music amid a lively atmosphere at the open-air market. Crowds eager to buy the finest mangos were swarming the merchant tents as buyers and sellers discussed prices and quality. At one tent, a man tasted a sample of a small mango that fetched a hefty price per kilogram.
Visibly pleased, he bought a crate.
“The festival is a significant milestone for Ismailia as people from all around Egypt have come to visit,” mango merchant Mohamed Al Akramy from ‘Al Akramy Mango’ tells Egyptian Streets.
Seleiman agrees, saying that the festival attracts domestic tourism to Ismailia.
“The day is popular, and it can get people to come and visit the governorate,” he explains.
Though Seleiman did not participate in the festival, he wishes he would have been able to so he can “learn more about mango and benefit as a farmer.”
“All types of mango are presented during the festival, and we discover novel strains as farmers,” he adds.
For Al Akramy, 2023 was Al Akramy Mango’s second year in the mango festival, having been one of the sponsors during its first edition in 2022.
Large quantities were demanded during 2022’s festival, the young merchant says. It led to providing a large supply, “so prices dropped,” he explains.
“Before we sell price, we sell people quality,” Al Akramy concludes.
To Be a Mango Farmer in Ismailia
For the farmers of Ismailia, mango is a profession that is passed down between generations.
“I’ve been in [the] mango [industry] all my life, I found my parents in it and I worked in it. I finished studying and started working in [the industry] since I was about 20,” Seleiman states.
The whole family works in agriculture, he adds, and mainly in mango. “This is our field.”
“Our work is from the greenhouse to the harvest,” expresses the farmer. He elucidates that the vast majority of agricultural lands in Ismailia are mango farms.
In 2020, Ismailians produced over 1,200,000 tons of mango across over 310,000 feddans of agricultural land, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. Every year, the governorate is known to produce 720,000 tons of mango annually on average.
Once the harvest season comes and goes, the servicing season begins.
“We service the trees and spray pesticides, in fertilization, in water, right after the harvest season. Work continues all year,” Seleiman explains.
For Al Akramy, mango is a purpose in itself.
“In Ismailia, mango isn’t considered a job, it is mango for mango’s sake. Everyone in Ismailia has mango farms, some sell and some give it as gifts. It is an essential commodity, not just something to be sold,” Al Akramy explains.
Mangoes are often gifted between Ismailians, he adds.
On his part, Seleiman illustrates the surge in activity during the summer season.
“There are a lot of opportunities to work. Everyone works during the season,” he says.
During summer vacation, boys “collect the harvest to the best of their ability and make some money […] During this time they have vacation and nothing to do with their time so they work with their fathers or their uncles on the land.”
When asked about the role of women in agriculture, Seleiman recognized women’ s valuable contribution in a traditional rural setting.
“The Egyptian woman always has the back of the man. In agricultural grounds, the Egyptian woman plays an important role.”
Seleiman recognizes the economic benefits that the woman’s unpaid labor in the household and on the farm brings.
“She prepares the food and breakfast for those working on the farm which helps save the costs of hiring someone to do this.” Women also help with the collection of crops when they can, he adds.
Those who work on the farm grow to love the land they nurture with such care.
“We love our job and we love our farms,” Seileiman says, adding that “nobody hates their profession here, if they did then it won’t reward them.” He hopes everyone loves their job and excels at it because “we won’t prosper as a country without production and work.”
“We have to increase Egypt’s prosperity and produce as much as possible.”
New Streams of Income
When we visited in 2023, Seleiman’s farm had a joyful air about it, with various Egyptian and international guests of all ages sitting on carpets laid on the earth and enjoying feteer meshaltet (traditional Egyptian pie) with honey or white cheese, alongside fresh, cold mango juice. With a full belly, the tourists laid back against tree logs with contentment and perhaps a little bit of ate-too-much-fatigue.
After breakfast, tea was served and the kids started playing on the farm, with one ecstatically climbing trees while the adults offered words of caution. Guests took a tour of the farm and learned about the different types of mango and the farming process. Some went into the greenhouse while others collected mangoes from the ground.
This sight is not foreign to the farms of Ismailia, where in recent years one-day trips to the countryside have been gaining prominence. It is an added source of income in the busy summer season to cover the costs of farming all-year round.
“As Ismailians, we love all people, and we are happy when people enjoy the farm and the land,” Seleiman says, adding that “most people that live in the city don’t know what it’s like on the farm or in the countryside.”
“People come from Cairo and other governorates to spend a day in the countryside amid the mango farms, and it’s an enjoyable experience for them to get to know mangoes and find out more about it, rather than seeing it only in the market. We see the enjoyment in their eyes when they’re here collecting the mangoes with their own hands,” the farmer explains.
The rise in popularity of this activity across farms in Ismailia and the Egyptian countryside is partially instigated by increasing interconnectedness as internet penetration and digital literacy increase. Young people are taking the initiative to capitalize on this new stream of income.
“People are now connecting with our youth online to arrange one-day countryside trips,” Seleiman states.
Exports vs. Local Markets
The costs of agriculture are high, and only increasing with Egypt’s current economic crisis. High inflation rates, a foreign currency shortage, multiple currency devaluations and the rise of a parallel market, and overall economic uncertainty have impacted business across the country—including mango farms.
“In light of the economic conditions which the whole country and world is going through, the cost [of agricultural production] is high, however we cannot cut costs and fall short so the cost [will remain] high,” Seleiman explains.
Given the currency devaluations, there is a general direction in the country to focus on exporting as a means of increasing profit and hard currency.
For mango farmers, exporting “helps farms amid increasing costs,” Seleiman says. Exporters cut costs as they take the crop directly from the farm, sparing farmers the costs of shipping to local markets. However, it is not so simple.
“Exporting is a good thing for us, but of course it affects local prices,” Al Akrami explains. It reduces supply in the local market and fetches a higher price than the local market, thus increasing prices. There are also technical considerations.
“The problem with mangoes is that it can’t sustain long travel, so it’s exported as a core. Most mango exports are cores,” Seleiman states. As a result, exports do not make up large quantities, which have to be absorbed by the local market.
“Every crop is both exported and sold in local markets,” he adds.
“Farmers cannot do without the local market. We are fully reliant on Allah followed by the local market which welcomes large quantities.”
Seleiman sells to wholesale markets around Egypt, such as Souq Al-Ismailia in the governorate and Souq Al-Obour in Cairo, where his mangoes are auctioned off in bulk.
After that, shops buy mangoes and resell them to consumers with a profit margin.
Climate Change Effects
However, each year’s production is different than the next, affecting quantities and prices, and therefore revenues and ultimately profit. Production varies based on multiple factors, chief of which is the prevailing weather conditions at the time.
With climate change accelerating and intensifying extreme weather events and general weather fluctuations, agriculture around the world is affected. Mangoes in Egypt, in particular, are severely affected, as the crop is highly sensitive to weather fluctuations and extreme temperatures, and needs specific temperatures and weather conditions to thrive.
Climate change also affects water supplies. However, this is not a significant issue for mango farming.
“Mango doesn’t need too much water, as it mostly relies on subterranean water. The trees are old and have deep roots,” Seleiman says.
The US Environmental Protection Agency states that “the effects of climate change on agriculture will depend on the rate and severity of the change, as well as the degree to which farmers and ranchers can adapt.”
“When the weather is appropriate for mango, there is a lot of production and everyone works,” Seleiman explains.
Mango flowering, usually beginning between December and February, may be delayed if the weather is not cool and dry, chairperson of the Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation, K V Nagaraju, told Deccan Herald.
A delay in flowering means production is pushed back, potentially into the rainy season, which may expose crops to increased flies, germs, and bacteria.
“Some crops and fruits accept climate change and some don’t,” Seleiman says, adding that “the mango tree is sensitive to climate change; if the weather is suitable, production is high, but if there is a fluctuation then production is decreased.”
“Local strains, such as Sukkary, are affected by any fluctuation in the weather,” the farmer adds.
India, the world’s largest mango producer, is facing similar challenges. Unseasonal rains and high temperatures delayed the flowering season and exposed mangoes to germs and bacteria, India Times reported in 2022.
By contrast, Egypt had a good mango year in 2022. Al Akrami described that year as “irreplaceable” in terms of production and reasonable prices due to high supply.
Egypt regained its spot as Saudi Arabia’s top mango exporter, having lost it the year before, with a 60 percent increase of Saudi mango imports from Egypt compared to 2021.
According to the General Organization for Export and Import Control, Egypt exported USD 143 million worth of fresh mangoes and USD 7 million worth of mango juice in 2024.
Climate change effects are therefore unpredictable and uneven, across countries and within them.
2021, on the other hand, was a disaster for Egyptian mango farmers by all accounts, with an 85 percent decrease in productivity and corresponding 40 percent increase in prices. A heatwave in December 2020, and another in March 2021, disrupted the normal flowering process of mangoes.
Farmer Khaled Hussien, who spoke to Al-Monitor in 2021, said that he had been expecting a yield of 10 tons, and instead got 400 kilograms.
“I have been in the mango growing business since I was a child […] This is the deepest loss I have ever experienced in my life,” Hussien expressed.
Agricultural engineer Karam Soleiman told Mada Masr’s Nada Arafat in 2021 that “better methods of agriculture, irrigation and fertilization, along with raising awareness among farmers about the dangers of climate change and how to monitor weather fluctuations could succeed in mitigating such outcomes.”
However, farmers were not sufficiently made aware of the upcoming fluctuations and how to counter them, leading to full exposure to the effects of extreme weather fluctuations, Arafat reports.
This year’s yield in Ismailia is not the climate-induced catastrophe that was 2021, but it is still lower than last year’s as a result of strong winds, according to Al Akrami.
“Production is not like last year but it’s still a good yield, maybe prices are higher, but the quality of the product is good,” he explains.
“With God’s grace, in our mango season, the whole town is buzzing and the youth work during the season and there is production, but as a cause of climate change, there is a reduction in production,” Seleiman tells Egyptian Streets.
“When the weather conditions are not as appropriate, production is moderate or less than moderate. But this is all God’s livelihood that he gives us,” the farmer adds.
Adapting to Climate Change
In response to these challenges, farmers are adding foreign strains that are more resilient or more suitable for the changed weather to the mix as “local types are more affected by weather fluctuations,” according to Seleiman.
“We won’t discontinue our local strains, as sometimes the local types yield a high produce, but we won’t put all our eggs in one basket,” the farmer goes on to say.
“We are diversifying our production so that I have different options. This is why we introduce foreign strains alongside the local ones.”
Farmers do this by having a local base, mostly Sukkary as it is “considered one of the finest bases for mango,” and when it sprouts they integrate foreign strains into the tree by adding branches in a process called taqlim (pruning).
The foreign strains added to the Sukkary base include Keitt, Kent, Tommy, Austin, Crimson, and Naomi. Local strains that are still farmed alongside the foreign types include Sukkary, Zebda, Eweiss, Taymour, Fund, Kobaneyya, and Nabeely.
Foreign mangoes are currently more popular among farmers as they “work better with the current weather,” Seleiman says, while the yield of local strains like Zebda and Eweiss is reduced, “maybe even to 10 percent.”
At the mango festival, Al Akramy said that they usually have over 10 types of Ismailian mango, but because of climate and supply pressures, they only had six at the festival: Eweiss, Fas, Naomi, Zebda, Sukkary, and Sukkary Momtaz.
“Anything that affects the trees, we can address it. The only thing we can’t address is climate change,” the young merchant says.
Will Ismailia’s Mangoes Persist?
When asked about what he would like to see in the future, Seleiman said he would like “more access to information from the Ministry of Agriculture” regarding mango farming methods and how to respond to climate change effects.
Seleiman says that the ministry and the head of agriculture in Ismailia have always been supportive and responsive to farmers’ requests, and that he hopes to see an availability of new information regarding new strains, new parasites, new repellants, new farming methods, and beyond.
Clearly loving what they do, the farmers of Ismailia are willing to work hard and explore new avenues to preserve their livelihoods, professions, and culture.
As one leaves the mango farms of Ismailia and heads toward the city, one cannot help but get the sense that they are leaving something very real behind: a connection to the earth through a fruit celebrated far and wide in Egypt and the world, bringing joy to countless people during the summer months.
In Ismailia, mango is, after all, a way of life.
Comments (0)