For years, Egyptian jasmine picker Wael al-Sayed has collected blossoms by night in the Nile Delta, supplying top global perfume houses. But in recent summers, his basket has felt lighter and the once-rich fragrance is fading.
“It’s the heat,” said Sayed, 45, who has spent nearly a decade working the fields in Shubra Balula, a quiet village about 100km north of Cairo and a key hub for Egypt’s jasmine industry.
As temperatures rise, the flowers bloom less and his daily harvest has dropped from 6kg to just two or three in the past two years, he said.
Photo: AFP
In this fertile pocket of the delta, jasmine has sustained thousands of families like Sayed’s for generations, but rising temperatures, prolonged dry spells and climate-driven pests are putting that legacy at risk.
From June to October, families, including children, traditionally head into the fields between midnight and dawn to hand-pick jasmine at peak fragrance.
With yields shrinking, some are leaving the trade entirely and those that have stayed now work longer hours. More children are also being pulled in to help and often stay up all night to pick before going to school.
Child labor remains widespread in Egypt, with 4.2 million children working in agriculture, industry and services, often in unsafe or exploitative conditions, a 2023 state study said.
This year, Sayed has brought two of his children — just nine and 10 years old — to join him and his wife on their 350m2 plot.
“We have no other choice,” Sayed said.
The country’s largest processor, A Fakhry & Co, said Egypt produces nearly half the world’s jasmine concrete, a waxy extract from the plant that provides a vital base for designer fragrances and is a multimillion dollar export.
In the 1970s, Egypt produced 11 tonnes of jasmine concrete annually, the International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades said.
Now, that is down to 6.5 tonnes, A Fakhry & Co said.
Ali Emara, 78, who has picked jasmine since the age of 12, said summers used to be hot, “but not like now.”
Mohamed Bassiouny, 56, and his four sons have seen their harvest halve from 15kg to 7kg, with pickers now taking over eight hours to fill a basket.
The region’s jasmine is highly sensitive to heat and humidity, said Karim Elgendy from Carboun Institute, a Dutch climate and energy think tank.
“Higher temperatures can disrupt flowering, weaken oil concentration and introduce stress that reduces yield,” Elgendy said.
A 2023 report by the International Energy Agency found Egypt’s temperature rose 0.38oC per decade (2000-2020), outpacing the global average.
The heat is affecting the strength of the jasmine’s scent, and with it the value of the oil extracted, A Fakhry & Co manger Badr Atef said.
Meanwhile, pests such as spider mites and leaf worms are thriving in the hotter, drier conditions and compounding the strain.
Alexandre Levet, CEO of the French Fragrance House in Grasse, France’s perfume capital, said that the industry is facing the effects of climate change globally.
“We have dozens of natural ingredients that are already suffering from climate change,” he said, adding that new origins for products have emerged as local climates shift.
With the Nile Delta also vulnerable to the rising Mediterranean water levels, which affect soil salinity, jasmine farmers are on the front line of a heating planet.
The workers are left “at the mercy of this huge system entirely on their own,” rural sociologist Saker El Nour said.
Global brands charge up to US$6,000 per kilogram of jasmine absolute, the pure aromatic oil derived from the concrete and used by perfumeries, but Egyptian pickers earn just 105 Egyptian pounds (US$2) per kilogram.
A tonne of flowers yields only 2 to 3kg of concrete and less than half that in pure essential oil — enough for about 100 perfume bottles.
“What’s 100 pounds worth today? Nothing,” Sayed said.
Egypt’s currency has lost more than two-thirds of its value since 2022, causing inflation to skyrocket and leaving families like Sayed’s scraping by.
Jasmine pickers in June staged a rare strike, demanding 150 pounds per kilogram. However, with prices set by a handful of private processors and little government oversight, they only received an increase of 10 Egyptian pounds.
Every year farmers earn less and less, while a heating planet threatens the community’s entire livelihood.
“Villages like this may lose their viability altogether,” Elgendy said.
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