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SHUBRA BALULA, Egypt: For years, Egyptian jasmine picker Wael Al-Sayed has collected blossoms by night in the Nile Delta, supplying top global perfume houses. But in recent summers, his basket has felt lighter and the once-rich fragrance is fading.

“It’s the heat,” said Sayed, 45, who has spent nearly a decade working the fields in Shubra Balula, a quiet village about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Cairo and a key hub for Egypt’s jasmine industry.

As temperatures rise, he said, the flowers bloom less and his daily harvest has dropped from six kilograms to just two or three in the past two years.

In this fertile pocket of the delta, jasmine has sustained thousands of families like Sayed’s for generations, but rising temperatures, prolonged dry spells and climate-driven pests are putting that legacy at risk.

From June to October, families, including children, traditionally head into the fields between midnight and dawn to hand-pick jasmine at peak fragrance.

With yields shrinking, some are leaving the trade entirely and those that have stayed now work longer hours.

More children are also being pulled in to help and often stay up all night to pick before going to school.

Child labor remains widespread in Egypt with 4.2 million children working in agriculture, industry and services, often in unsafe or exploitative conditions, according to a 2023 state study.

This year, Sayed has brought two of his children — just nine and 10 years old — to join him and his wife on their 350-square-meter (3,800-square-foot) plot.

“We have no other choice,” Sayed said.

According to the country’s largest processor, A Fakhry & Co, Egypt produces nearly half the world’s jasmine concrete, a waxy extract from the plant that provides a vital base for designer fragrances and is a multi-million dollar export.

In the 1970s, Egypt produced 11 tons of jasmine concrete annually, according to the International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades.

Now, A Fakhry & Co. says that’s down to 6.5 tons.

Ali Emara, 78, who has picked jasmine since the age of 12, said summers used to be hot, “but not like now.”

Mohamed Bassiouny, 56, and his four sons have seen their harvest halve from 15 to seven kilograms with pickers now taking over eight hours to fill a basket.

The region’s jasmine is highly sensitive to heat and humidity, said Karim Elgendy from Carboun Institute, a Dutch climate and energy think tank.

“Higher temperatures can disrupt flowering, weaken oil concentration and introduce stress that reduces yield,” Elgendy told AFP.

A 2023 report by the International Energy Agency found Egypt’s temperature rose 0.38C per decade (2000-2020), outpacing the global average.

The heat is affecting the strength of the jasmine’s scent, and with it the value of the oil extracted, said Badr Atef, manager of A Fakhry & Co.

Meanwhile, pests such as spider mites and leaf worms are thriving in the hotter, drier conditions and compounding the strain.

Alexandre Levet, CEO of the French Fragrance House in Grasse, France’s perfume capital, explained that the industry is facing the effects of climate change globally.

“We have dozens of natural ingredients that are already suffering from climate change,” he said, explaining that new origins for products have emerged as local climates shift.

With the Nile Delta also vulnerable to the rising Mediterranean water levels, which affect soil salinity, jasmine farmers are on the front line of a heating planet.

The laborers are left “at the mercy of this huge system entirely on their own,” said rural sociologist Saker El Nour, with “no stake” in the industry that depends on their labor.

Global brands charge up to $6,000 per kilogram of jasmine absolute, the pure aromatic oil derived from the concrete and used by perfumeries, but Egyptian pickers earn just 105 Egyptian pounds ($2) per kilogram.

A ton of flowers yields only 2-3 kilograms of concrete and less than half that in pure essential oil — enough for around 100 perfume bottles.

“What’s 100 pounds worth today? Nothing,” said Sayed.

Egypt’s currency has lost more than two-thirds of its value since 2022, causing inflation to skyrocket and leaving families like Sayed’s scraping by.

Last June, pickers staged a rare strike, demanding 150 pounds per kilogram. But with prices set by a handful of private processors and little government oversight, they only received an increase of 10 pounds.

Every year farmers earn less and less, while a heating planet threatens the community’s entire livelihood.

“Villages like this may lose their viability altogether,” Elgendy said.

 

MOUNT ARLINGTON, United States: Cracker Barrel has a special place in the hearts of many Americans, offering homestyle American cuisine in a folksy “Old Country Store” setting complete with rocking chairs and occasional country music performances.

But an attempt to rebrand the storied US chain has sparked a firestorm of opposition online and opened a new front in the culture wars around legacy brands seeking to update their corporate images.

It has also hammered the company’s share price, wiping tens of millions of dollars off of its value, and dividing customers and staff.

The chain, which has around 660 US branches, removed from its logo the stylized likeness of Uncle Herschel – the uncle of founder Dan Evins – who was shown sitting on a wooden chair in front of the eponymous barrel.

President Donald Trump’s son Donald Jr. took to X to demand to know “WTF is wrong with Cracker barrel,” quoting a post by the “Woke War Room” account that claimed the chain had “scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding.”

The new, simplified logo features just the text of the brand name in a rounded-off yellow hexagon.

The furor is just the latest to engulf corporate America, following similar rows when high-end carmaker Jaguar re-branded, removing its iconic “leaping cat” emblem, drawing howls of indignation from core customers, critics and the political right.

At the Cracker Barrel in Mount Arlington, New Jersey, a busy lunch rush largely bustled past the only sizable iteration of the new logo, behind the cash register, with the original still adorning old-timey signage, packaging and menus.

“They’re taking away Mr.Herschel! Am I gonna miss him? Maybe,” said a register operator in the large gift shop who declined to be named. “They’re making everything bland.”

Her colleague, who was clearing tables, insisted: “Nothing’s changing – just the logo. The food is still the same, the menu is still the same.”

Longtime customer Kathy Brondolo was visiting the branch with her husband as they were attending a wedding nearby and said the new logo “doesn’t make a difference – as long as we can see it from the road.”

“How can anybody be down on it? Life is change,” said the retired social worker, 67, as she and her husband sat on the chain’s signature rocking chairs.

Inside the restaurant 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Manhattan, diners ate vast platters of meatloaf and fried chicken, rounded off with buttermilk biscuits, surrounded by walls covered with antiques and hunting trophies.

Marketing professor David Reibstein at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School said “it is not unusual for a brand to do an occasional refresh. This was not a major shift either.”

“The traditions have broken for the traditionalists. Apparently, the issue is the core of Cracker Barrel’s customers are traditionalists and they tend to reside mostly in red, conservative states and these are most likely to react. It was almost seen as an abandonment of this segment.”

Trump won in 74 percent of counties with a Cracker Barrel in 2024, according to elections analyst Dave Wasserman.

Florida congressman Byron Donalds, a Republican candidate for state governor, wrote on X that he had worked in a Cracker Barrel and had even been baptized in the parking lot of one.

“Their logo was iconic and their unique restaurants were a fixture of American culture. No one asked for this woke rebrand. It’s time to Make Cracker Barrel Great Again,” he said, echoing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” mantra.

Marketing expert Tim Calkins wrote on his blog that “in a world with hair-trigger social media and commentators eager to stir up controversy to drive ratings, this is a dangerous area.”

He advised that Cracker Barrel should “stick with the program” – even as the business contended with a share price down $7 to $54.40 on the week.

“There is no question Cracker Barrel needs some changes and the current moves seem reasonable,” Calkins said. “People will likely move on when the next hot issue comes along.”