Over the past four years, Ramadan in Egypt has changed significantly. The piles of nuts, dried fruits and dates that once filled living room bowls and market stalls have thinned out, replaced by smaller portions and cheaper alternatives.
What began as a shock to household budgets during the first waves of steep inflation in 2022 has, by this year, settled into a quiet acceptance, which for many is embodied in the sense that the Muslim holy month can still be joyful, even if it looks very different from the ones they grew up with.
Each Ramadan brings a familiar surge in buying food, sweets and decorations as families prepare for group iftars, desserts and long evenings of reflection after the day's fast.
But many Egyptians now say they have grown accustomed to a more restrained atmosphere in the holy month after cultivating careful spending habits over the past few years.
Fewer luxuries, cheaper essentials
According to data released by Egypt’s Chambers of Commerce earlier this week, the prices of some Ramadan staples have risen by 25 per cent compared to last year.
These include peanuts and coconuts, which, in recent years, have replaced imported items such as cashews, almonds, and pistachios, whose prices have risen far beyond the reach of most households.
The nightly exchanges of Ramadan desserts between neighbours have become less frequent.
The days when families competed with inventive versions of kunafa, qatayef and khoshaf have largely passed. Now, most say they prepare them only a handful of times over the month, saving expensive ingredients for special gatherings.
However, after several years of coping with price hikes and rising living costs, some Egyptians are shifting their focus away from the issue.
“I am honestly fed up with people ruining our Ramadan by constantly complaining about prices,” said Umm Saleh, 63, a grandmother living in Cairo’s Ain Shams district.
“This year, I am not even going to visit the nut shop – why waste the money? But I’m determined to have a good Ramadan. I want to get closer to God and enjoy food with my family.”
Her attitude resonates widely. For many, the exhaustion from years of discussion about inflation has given way to pragmatism and a desire to refocus on the holy month's spiritual heart.
Online backlash and shifting habits
Still, food costs remain a talking point. Over the past week, a social media hashtag, #Boycott_Yameesh, has trended across Egyptian platforms, with users blaming merchants for keeping prices high despite the Egyptian pound’s slight appreciation against the US dollar over the past three months.
Dozens of posts and comments question why imported goods have not become cheaper and accuse traders of profiteering.
Posts comparing prices across Cairo’s neighbourhoods highlighted differences of up to 75 per cent between wealthier and lower-income districts, fuelling suspicion that merchants were setting prices for personal gain rather than reflecting market forces.
Yet data from the chambers of commerce suggest a more complex picture.
Sales of yameesh, the mixture of nuts and dried fruit essential to the Ramadan table, have fallen by around 30 per cent over the past three months, compared with last year, confirming that many families, like Umm Saleh’s, are forgoing it altogether. Demand has dropped most among younger households, whose members did not grow up seeing bowls of yameesh as a Ramadan necessity.
Despite this decline, Egypt’s imports of nuts and dried fruits are 30 per cent higher than last year, according to the chambers of commerce.
The cost of imports from Turkey, in particular, which supplies much of Egypt’s stock, rose sharply – by between 40 and 50 per cent – due to inflation and higher operational expenses there.
Government efforts to ease costs
Against this backdrop, the Egyptian government has launched a series of cost-cutting initiatives.
The Supply Ministry said it had opened more than 30,000 Ahlan Ramadan outlets, which sell food at discounts of 20 to 30 per cent, to relieve pressure on households during the holy month. The armed forces also operate discount outlets.
At one Ahlan Ramadan outlet in Cairo’s Nasr City, Yomna El Sayed, 46, shopped for small amounts of nuts to use sparingly in desserts. A resident of the lower-income district of Abassiya, she told The National that the discounts allowed her to keep some culinary traditions alive.
“I’ll make a couple of desserts a week,” she said. “If I use more raisins and dates and less nuts, and drench the kunafa in syrup, it’s just as good.”
For many families, such adjustments have become the norm after years of rising inflation and import costs resulting from multiple currency devaluations.
However, this year has seen a marked drop in the prices of some essentials, such as beans, lentils, and grains, which have fallen by up to 30 per cent compared with last year.
“For me and many like me, the price of vegetables, meat and real food matters more than yameesh and desserts; those things are extras, not essentials,” Ms El Sayed said. “This year, onions, tomatoes, beans, rice, lentils and so many other things are a lot cheaper than last year, which is why I think people aren’t as bothered about the increase in yameesh prices."
Furthermore, the prices of non-premium dates and raisins – consumed by the majority during Ramadan – have dropped by around 20 per cent. Rice, a staple of daily meals, costs about 30 per cent less than it did during Ramadan last year.
Merchants under pressure
Merchants, however, tell a different story. Many say they are struggling to cover their costs amid dwindling sales.
“We are being unfairly targeted by an online smear campaign,” said Sayed Saleh, 64, who sells herbs, spices, nuts and dried fruits in Heliopolis. “People say we’re exploiting citizens, but that’s not true. Some of us import fresh, high-quality goods that cost more. What people find at government markets is often older stock that spent months in storage. It’s cheap because it’s last year’s wares.”
He acknowledges that business has been declining for several years. “Every year, people buy less,” he said. “But this year it’s surprising to see demand drop even though our prices haven’t really increased. Maybe the times are changing, and we must adapt too.”
Industry data support his view: prices of most imported nuts and fruits – cashews, pistachios, almonds, dried apricots, figs and prunes – have remained largely steady over the past year, fluctuating only slightly according to supply costs and exchange rate shifts.
A gentler rhythm
Unlike a few years ago, the picture that emerges from Cairo’s markets and households is one of adaptation rather than crisis. The complaints that filled social media in 2022 and 2023 have reduced.
The elaborate Ramadans of the past have given way to something simpler, but the holy month retains many of its other festive elements. Paper lanterns, streamers, and other decorations have been erected all over the Egyptian capital, along with billboards announcing a slew of new television dramas – another quintessential element of Ramadan that Egyptians might value more than dried fruit and nuts.
For many, this more modest observance of Ramadan feels like a return to its essence, with fewer luxuries, and gratitude for some semblance of stability.
Umm Saleh, the grandmother from Cairo’s Ain Shams district, sums up the mood perfectly: "We still have a lot to be thankful for, and there’s nothing to be done about the prices.”
