Quick answer: Cashew nuts originate from the tropical Anacardium occidentale tree, native to South America. Each nut grows attached to the bottom of a juicy, pear-shaped structure known as a cashew apple. Because the shell contains caustic oils that can blister skin, cashews are always processed and shelled before being sold to consumers in global markets.
By Anselmo Boaventura
Short answer: Cashews grow on a tropical tree native to South America. Each nut hangs underneath a juicy, pear-shaped fruit called the cashew apple, and sits inside a double shell full of a caustic oil related to the irritant in poison ivy. That is why cashews are never sold in the shell — and one reason they cost more than most nuts. Today they are grown across Africa and Asia, including by hundreds of thousands of smallholder families in Mozambique.
How a cashew grows
- A cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) flowers in the dry season.
- Each flower produces a kidney-shaped nut — the true fruit — hanging from the bottom of a swollen stalk.
- That stalk swells into the cashew apple, a soft yellow or red fruit, roughly 5–11 cm long.
- When ripe, apple and nut fall to the ground together. Farmers twist the nut off and dry it in the sun.
The apple is edible and sweet but very perishable. In many producing countries most of it is left to rot — see Mozambique's cashew apple: the fruit that rots every year.
Why cashews are never sold in the shell
The shell holds an oily liquid containing anacardic acid and cardol. These compounds are chemically related to urushiol, the oil in poison ivy, and they can burn and blister skin. Raw cashews must be roasted or steamed and then cracked open carefully before the kernel can be removed and peeled.
Why cashews are expensive
- Hand work. Each nut must be cracked, separated from its shell and peeled, often by hand.
- Low yield. A large share of the nut's weight is shell, so a sack of raw nuts gives a much smaller bag of kernels.
- Long journeys. Raw nuts are often shipped from Africa to Asia for processing, then shipped again to US and European shops.
- Seasonality. Each tree produces one main crop a year.
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Where cashews came from — and how they reached Mozambique
The cashew is native to tropical South America, especially north-eastern Brazil. In the 1500s Portuguese traders carried it to India and onward to East Africa, where it spread along the coast. In Mozambique the tree took root so well that by the early 1970s the country was one of the largest cashew producers in the world.
Today the biggest producers are Côte d'Ivoire and India, with Vietnam a major processor. In Mozambique, cashew trees are still part of daily life in provinces such as Nampula, Inhambane and Zambézia, where families harvest nuts from backyard and field trees and sell them for cash.
The problem: farmers sell raw, the value is made elsewhere
Most of the money in a bag of cashews is made after the farm gate — in cracking, peeling, roasting, packing and shipping. Many Mozambican farmers sell raw nuts at low prices to traders. We explain this in The Cashew Paradox: Why Mozambique Exports Raw and Imports Roasted.
What this means for a farming family
A cashew tree is a family's savings account: it produces cash every dry season with little input. But the same family usually also grows maize, cassava or beans to eat — and those crops depend on good seed and fertilizer bought before the rains. A poor season can force a family to sell its cashews early, at the lowest price of the year.
Frequently asked questions
Where do cashews grow? On cashew trees in tropical countries — mainly West Africa, East Africa (including Mozambique and Tanzania), India and Southeast Asia.
Is the cashew a nut or a seed? Botanically it is a seed inside the true fruit, which hangs below the cashew apple. In the kitchen it is treated as a nut.
Why can't you buy cashews in the shell? The shell contains caustic oils related to the irritant in poison ivy, so cashews are always shelled and treated before sale.
Can you eat the cashew apple? Yes. It is juicy and sweet, and is used for juice and drinks, but it spoils within a day or two of falling.
Help a Mozambican farming family get through the planting season without selling early: sponsor a farmer from $25. Your gift pays for seed and fertilizer at the farmer's local shop, and you get the receipt. Sponsorships are gifts, not investments.