Gloved and armed with shears, women weave through thorny brambles, clipping and tossing their harvest into wheelbarrows.
โThank God for the rain,โ said rose picker Fatima El Alami. โThere are roses elsewhere, but thereโs nowhere like here.โ
She is right. Mild temperatures, steady sunlight and low humidity make the fields around Kalaat MโGouna a perfect cradle for growing its signature flower: the Damask rose.
Abundant precipitation and several desert downpours this year have bestowed Morocco with an exceptional yield of the flower, used for rosewater and rose oil.
Pink and pungent, the roses are set to come in at 4,800 tonnes this year, a bloom far beyond the 2020-2023 average, according to the Regional Office for Agricultural Development, in nearby Ouarzazate.