Position as at the week beginning 19 August 2026. Keitt is the only variety at commercial volume. Kent finished earlier in the month and Naomi is long gone. What follows is what our packhouse is seeing rather than a market forecast.
Fruit availability and size curve
Keitt is now firmly in the tail of its window. Volume per picking day is easing week on week and the size curve has moved down, as it does every year once the main flush is off the trees. Counts of 8 and 9 per 4 kg carton remain available but are no longer the bulk of the pack. Counts of 10 and 12 are what fill most cartons this week, and buyers holding a spec that insists on 6 and 7 count should expect either a shortfall or a wait. Class I selection is holding well. Skin finish on late fruit is generally clean, with the usual increase in minor lenticel marking that comes with fruit that has hung longer on the tree.
What this means for spec
The practical response is to widen the accepted count range rather than to push for the sizes that are running out. A carton specified as 9 to 12 count will load without argument this week. A carton specified as 8 count only will not. Retail programmes that were built around larger fruit in July should be revised now for the September arrivals, not after the container is booked. Buyers who need the size logic in more detail can read our note on mango sizing and carton counts.
Freight and booking positions
Reefer space out of Alexandria and Damietta is available on the Mediterranean and Gulf strings with normal lead times, and we are advising a booking made seven to ten days before the intended gate-in. The pressure point over the next fortnight is not vessel space, it is fruit. Sokhna remains the sensible option for buyers routing to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and Incoterms 2020 terms are unchanged across FOB, CFR and CIF.
The September handover
Loadings will continue into September on declining volume. Buyers running a continuous mango programme should now be sequencing the changeover to the next origin, and the timing is easier to get right if you fix it against your own arrival dates rather than against the Egyptian loading date. A container gated in during the first week of September arrives in northern Europe toward the end of the month, which is where your overlap needs to sit. Our note on late-season Egyptian mango sets out how the handover is normally planned.
Looking to 2027
Enquiries for next season are already arriving. Contracting for 2027 allocation is best done between December and February, ahead of the flowering assessment, and buyers who want a fixed variety mix and a guaranteed weekly volume are usually the ones who get it. Waiting until the season opens is how a programme ends up on spot terms.
Nile Prime packs Keitt, Kent and Naomi mango for export from Alexandria, Damietta and Sokhna on Incoterms 2020 terms. For current availability, counts and freight positions on this week’s fruit, contact us on WhatsApp at +20 10 9911 1918.