Cashew from Kerala
If India is the world's #2 cashew processor, Kerala is India's #1 processing state. Kollam district alone hosts the largest concentration of cashew processing facilities in the country — a workforce numbered in the hundreds of thousands at peak season, and the source of most of India's W320 export volume.
Specialties
W320 (highest export volume in India), traditional processing scale
Harvest
Feb–Apr (peak Mar–Apr)
Key clusters
Kollam, Kayamkulam, Thiruvananthapuram
Kollam — the world's cashew workshop
Kollam (Quilon) became the heart of Indian cashew processing in the early 20th century, when British and Indian merchants set up the first commercial shelling units. By the 1960s the district employed 200,000+ workers across hundreds of factories, processing Indian-grown RCN and increasingly imported African nut. Today the industry is leaner but still dominant in scale — most of India's W320 export volume flows out of Kollam-area processors.
Why source from Kerala
- Scale — if you need volume, Kerala has the deepest processor base in India
- W320 specialty — the standard export grade is Kerala's strongest product
- Established export operations — Kollam processors have been shipping to the US, UK, and Middle East for generations
- Skilled hand-shelling workforce — for premium grade buyers who want manual processing's higher whole-kernel ratios
What to know
- Most Kerala processors blend domestic Kerala-grown RCN with imported African RCN (Ivory Coast, Tanzania). Pure Kerala-origin lots are scarce.
- FSSAI + APEDA registration is universal among export processors.
- Labour costs have risen substantially over the past decade, narrowing Kerala's traditional cost advantage vs Vietnam.
- Kayamkulam and Thiruvananthapuram clusters specialize in mid-volume orders; Kollam handles the larger contracts.