Ghana has two mango seasons. The major one runs from April to August and is at its height in May and June, when mangoes are everywhere and cheapest. A smaller one runs from November to January. Outside those months you will still find mangoes, but fewer, dearer, and often from further away.

In one line: April to August and November to January, best May and June.

— What else is in season this month

Why it comes when it does

The mango is a tree, so it is not planted each year like maize. It flowers in the dry season - the harmattan months around Accra - and the fruit follows: the major harvest begins in April, as the rains arrive, and the minor one in November.

Where Accra’s mangoes come from

From just up the road. Greater Accra, the Eastern region and the Volta region make up Ghana’s mango belt, the cluster behind up to 50% of the country’s mango exports. The Accra end of it is Shai-Osudoku, around Dodowa, on the dry savanna north-east of the city.

The growers have their own problems. In December 2024 Shai-Osudoku’s farmers reported a bumper harvest with too few buyers to take it, and asked for help with boreholes so they could irrigate. A good year on the tree is not always a good year for the farmer.

The varieties

The varieties grown in the belt include Keitt, Kent, Haden and Palmer - large, smooth, export mangoes, as opposed to the small, stringy local mangoes that grow on trees in compounds all over the city. Market sellers do not always know the name; ask instead whether it is “the big one” or the local kind, and whether it is for eating now or in a few days.

Buying a good one

Smell the stem end

A ripe mango smells sweet where the stalk was. Colour tells you less than you think: some ripe varieties stay green, and some red ones are hard.

  • Press gently. It should give a little, like a ripe avocado. Rock-hard will ripen at home in a few days in a paper bag; soft spots are bruises.
  • Buy in the peak months. May and June bring the best price and flavour, which is the honest reason to make jam, freeze slices or dry them then.
  • Wash it before cutting. The knife carries whatever is on the skin into the flesh.

When it is not mango season

From roughly September to October, and again in February and March, mangoes are scarce. What you see then is late, early, or brought in. If you want the fruit for something specific - a party, a recipe, a trip home - plan for May.

— Farming in Accra: where the city’s food is grown
— Accra’s markets
— Where to buy food cheaply

Sources: the WACOMP pineapple and mango study and its value chain analysis of Ghana’s fruit sector, and ABM Online’s report on the Shai-Osudoku growers - listed in full on the seasons page.