In Accra the seasons are wet and dry, not warm and cold, and the market follows the rain. Mangoes pile up in May and June; tomatoes are cheapest in the dry months; roasted corn appears at the roadside in August; fish floods the beaches when the cold water rises off the coast. Buying with the season is the simplest way to eat better and spend less.
This is the year, stretch by stretch, built from the same data as the seasons page - where you can see any month at a glance, with photographs.
— What is in season this month
How to read this
- At their best - the months worth singling out for that food: the biggest supply, the best price and usually the best flavour.
- Also in season - foods that are only in season part of the year, and are in season that month.
- Coming next - in season within the next two months.
Many things - pawpaw, banana, plantain, okra, garden egg, carrots - are on sale all year and are listed further down rather than in every month. Windows marked typical on the seasons page follow from the rains and general Ghanaian calendars rather than Accra records, so treat them as a guide: a late rainy season moves everything by weeks.
December to February: dry, and the Harmattan
Dry, with Harmattan haze; hot by February. Dry-season irrigated vegetables are at their best - lettuce, tomato, cabbage. The minor mango harvest runs into January and the cassava harvest is on. Sea fish are plentiful in the upwelling.
| Month | At their best | Also in season | Coming next |
|---|---|---|---|
| December | Cassava, Tomato, Cabbage, Lettuce, Sea fish | Maize, Cowpea (beans), Onion, Mango | Watermelon |
| January | Cassava, Tomato, Cabbage, Lettuce, Sea fish | Watermelon, Mango | – |
| February | Tomato, Cabbage, Lettuce, Sea fish | Watermelon | Mango |
This is salad season. Lettuce, cabbage and tomatoes from the city’s irrigated plots are at their best and their cheapest, which makes it the time for coleslaw with your jollof and fresh pepper sauces. Cassava is being dug, so gari and fufu are at their best value, and the beaches are busy with the first upwelling’s catch.
— Vegetables and leafy greens in Accra
— Fish seasons on the Accra coast
March to May: the heat, then the major rains
The hottest stretch, then the rains start in April. Land is prepared and maize, cassava and sweet corn go in. The major mango harvest begins in April, and fertiliser demand peaks.
| Month | At their best | Also in season | Coming next |
|---|---|---|---|
| March | Tomato | Watermelon | Mango |
| April | Tomato, Ayoyo and kontomire, Orange, Snails | Watermelon, Mango | – |
| May | Ayoyo and kontomire, Mango, Orange, Snails | – | Maize |
A quieter stretch for new produce. Tomatoes are still good into April, but most crops are being planted rather than picked. Then the rains arrive, the mangoes start in April, and the leafy greens - ayoyo and kontomire - grow fast and cheap.
June and July: the heavy rains
The major rains at their heaviest, with flooding in valley bottoms and below the Weija dam. Cassava planting finishes in July. Mangoes peak. The second upwelling starts in July, and vegetable plots in low ground flood.
| Month | At their best | Also in season | Coming next |
|---|---|---|---|
| June | Ayoyo and kontomire, Mango, Orange, Snails | – | Maize, Rice, Sweet corn, Watermelon |
| July | Maize, Ayoyo and kontomire, Orange, Snails, Sea fish | Mango | Rice, Sweet corn, Onion, Watermelon |
Peak mango, oranges at their best, greens everywhere - and tomatoes at their most fragile, because the rains bring disease and the fruit bruises and rots faster. Buy tomatoes little and often in these months. The second upwelling starts in July, and the fish come back.
August to October: the break, then the minor rains
A short dry spell, then the minor rains. The major maize and sweet corn harvest - roasted corn season. Minor season maize and cowpea are planted, and onions from August. The upwelling runs to September.
| Month | At their best | Also in season | Coming next |
|---|---|---|---|
| August | Maize, Sea fish | Rice, Sweet corn, Watermelon, Mango | Cowpea (beans), Onion |
| September | Snails, Sea fish | Rice, Sweet corn, Onion, Watermelon | Maize, Cowpea (beans), Mango |
| October | Snails | Rice, Cowpea (beans), Onion, Watermelon | Maize, Mango |
Roasted and boiled corn season, from the major maize harvest - the smell of it on every main road. Locally grown rice comes in from the lowland fields, watermelons are back, and onions are harvested from September.
— Cassava, maize, rice and plantain: the staples
November: the minor rains end
The minor rains end. Minor-season maize and cowpea come in, the cassava harvest starts and the minor mango season begins.
| Month | At their best | Also in season | Coming next |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | Cassava | Maize, Cowpea (beans), Onion, Mango | Watermelon |
Beans season: the cowpea harvest makes this the month to buy a bag of dried beans for red-red and waakye. The minor mango season begins, and the cassava harvest starts again.
On sale all year
These are in the market whatever the month, though price and quality move with the rains:
- Cassava - best November to January
- Tomato - best December to April
- Hot pepper
- Okra
- Garden egg
- Cabbage - best December to February
- Carrot
- Cucumber
- Cauliflower
- Lettuce - best December to February
- Spring onion
- Ayoyo and kontomire - best April to July
- Pineapple
- Pawpaw
- Banana
- Plantain
- Coconut
- Orange - best April to July
And three with no confirmed season in Accra at all - avocado, guava and cashew apple - for which the honest answer is to ask your seller what is coming in this week.
Buying with the season
- When something is at its best, buy more of it, and keep it. Pepper can be dried whole or blended and frozen; tomatoes can be cooked down into a stew base and frozen; dried beans and grains keep for months.
- Out of season, look at the label. Onions out of season are usually stored or from further away; tinned tomato paste is the Accra kitchen’s answer to the rainy months.
- Ask where it was grown. Sellers usually know: mangoes from the Dodowa belt, cassava from Ada West, lettuce and spring onions from city plots.
- Wash anything eaten raw. City vegetables are often watered from drains.
— Where to buy food cheaply in Accra
— Accra’s markets
The rest of the food guides
— Fruit in Accra
— Vegetables and leafy greens in Accra
— The staples behind Ghanaian food
— When to plant what in Accra
— Farming in Accra: where the city’s food is grown
Every season here comes from the research behind the seasons page, compiled on 6 October 2026, with its sources listed in full there.