Fruit in Accra is cheap, everywhere and mostly local. Pineapples and pawpaws come in from the farms just outside the city, mangoes from the belt around Dodowa, and coconuts from the coast; sellers carry them through traffic, pile them on roadside tables and cut them to order. The imported fruit in the supermarkets - apples, grapes, pears in the European sense - costs many times more and tastes of the journey.

What follows is fruit by fruit: when it is in season, how to choose it, and how Accra eats it. The seasons come from the same research as the seasons page, where each fruit has its photograph and its twelve months.

— What is in season this month

Mango

April to August and November to January, best May and June. Major season April to August, peaking in May and June. Minor season November to January.

Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta make up the cluster behind up to half of Ghana's mango exports, and Shai-Osudoku, around Dodowa, is the Accra end of it. Keitt, Kent, Haden and Palmer are grown. The big, smooth export varieties are sold beside the small, stringy local mangoes from compound trees, and both have their fans.

Choosing: The peak months bring the best price and flavour. A sweet smell at the stem end means ripe.

— Mango season in Ghana, in full

Pineapple

All year. Two flushes a year. One exporter quotes November to April, another all year, so no peak is shown.

Grown mainly in Greater Accra, Central, Eastern and Volta. Smooth Cayenne, MD2 and Sugarloaf are the varieties. The sugarloaf is the one to look for if you like them sweet. Hawkers sell pineapple peeled and cut into bags, cold, which is the best snack in traffic.

Choosing: If a leaf pulls easily from the crown, the fruit is ripe.

Pawpaw

All year. All year.

Pawpaw - papaya - is breakfast fruit, eaten fresh and cold, and one of the cheapest fruits in the market for its size.

Choosing: Choose fruit that is yellow-orange and gives a little when pressed.

Oranges

All year, best April to July. On sale all year, peaking around the major rains.

Ghanaian oranges are often green or mottled when ripe - the colour of the skin says little here. Sellers peel the outer skin with a knife and hand you the orange to squeeze and drink rather than to segment, which is how most people have them.

Choosing: Heavy for its size usually means juicy.

Watermelon

January to April and August to October. Roughly January to April, and again August to October.

One of the region's biggest crops by weight.

Choosing: A hollow sound when tapped and a creamy yellow patch underneath are good signs.

Coconut

All year. All year.

Coconut palms are a traditional crop along the Accra coast. The roadside seller opens a green coconut with a cutlass for the water, then splits it so you can scoop out the soft flesh. It is the cleanest drink in the city, sealed until it is opened in front of you.

Choosing: Shake it. More water sloshing means a younger, juicier nut.

Banana and plantain

Banana: all year. Plantain: all year.

Banana and roasted groundnuts, bought from the same seller, is one of the city’s classic snacks. Plantain is a staple more than a fruit: boiled, fried as kelewele, roasted over charcoal and sold with groundnuts, or pounded into fufu.

Choosing plantain: Green for chips and boiling, yellow with black spots for kelewele.
Choosing bananas: Buy some ripe and some green, so they ripen through the week.

— Plantain and the other staples

Avocado

The season could not be confirmed for Accra, so no months are shown.

In Ghana an avocado is a pear, and the trees are in compounds all over the city. It is eaten with bread, with gari, or alongside kenkey and fish, more often than in a salad.

Choosing: a pear that gives a little at the stem end is ready today; a hard one ripens in a few days in a paper bag. Ask your seller what is coming in this week.

Guava and cashew apple

The season could not be confirmed for Accra, so no months are shown. Guava - pink inside, sweet and full of seeds - turns up in the markets and on compound trees. The cashew apple is the fruit the cashew nut hangs from; it is juicy and astringent, and mostly eaten where it grows.

Where to buy fruit

  • Markets have the widest choice and the best prices; buy from one seller regularly and you will be given the good ones. — Accra’s markets
  • Roadside tables near where you live are the everyday option, and most sellers will cut a pineapple or open a coconut for you.
  • Traffic hawkers sell cut fruit in bags - convenient, but see below.
  • Supermarkets for imported fruit, at imported prices.

— Where to buy food cheaply in Accra

Cut fruit, safely

Whole fruit you peel yourself is about as safe as food gets. Cut fruit sold in bags has been handled and sometimes rinsed in water of unknown origin, so buy it from sellers who cut it in front of you, from a clean board, and eat it the same day. Wash any fruit you eat with the skin on.

— Street food, and how to eat it safely

Where next

— A month-by-month food calendar
— Vegetables and leafy greens in Accra
— What to eat in Accra

The seasons on this page come from the research behind the seasons page, compiled on 6 October 2026; its sources are listed in full there.