Farmers behind perfumes face climate fight alone

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.

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“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, he said, the flowers bloom less and his daily harvest has dropped from six kilograms to just two or three in the past two years.

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 handpick jasmine at peak fragrance.

With yields shrinking, some are leaving the trade entirely and those that have stayed now work longer hours.