Where do cashews come from?

The botanical origin

The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is endemic to the coastal cerrado region of northeastern Brazil. The exact origin area covers modern-day Ceará, Piauí, and Rio Grande do Norte states. Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples (Tupi-Guarani) called the tree "acaju" — from which both English "cashew" and Portuguese "caju" descend.

Within Brazil's tropical climate, the cashew tree evolved to handle poor sandy soils, drought, and seasonal fires. Those characteristics made it remarkably exportable: it would later thrive in equally tough African and Asian environments.

The Portuguese spread (1500s onwards)

When Portuguese explorers reached Brazil in 1500, they encountered cashew trees almost immediately. Within decades, they were carrying seeds and seedlings on their trade routes — primarily to:

• East Africa — Mozambique and what is now Tanzania (~1560s onwards). The Portuguese planted cashew to bind soil and provide fruit/wood for colonies.
• Portuguese India — Goa, then onwards to the broader Western Ghats coast (~1570s)
• Southeast Asia and West Africa — secondary spread from the African and Indian seeding points

The cashew tree's tolerance of poor soils and dry seasons meant it took root readily in each new region. By the 19th century, cashew was being cultivated commercially across the tropical belt.

Today: a three-continent supply chain

The modern cashew industry is split across three roles, generally located on three different continents:

1. Producers (where the trees grow)

• Côte d'Ivoire — ~1,000,000 MT raw cashew nut (RCN) per year. World's #1 producer.
• India — ~700,000 MT RCN, both for domestic processing and supplementing imports
• Tanzania — ~250,000 MT RCN
• Vietnam — ~350,000 MT RCN domestically, but imports more for processing
• Mozambique — ~100,000 MT RCN; recovering from historical highs
• Brazil — ~120,000 MT RCN; the original home, now smaller in volume
• Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau — collectively ~600,000+ MT across West Africa
• Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines — secondary Asian producers

2. Processors (where RCN becomes kernels)

• Vietnam — handles approximately 50% of global kernel processing volume. Imports most of its RCN from West Africa.
• India — second-largest processor, ~25% of global volume. Processes domestic + imported RCN.
• Côte d'Ivoire — domestic processing is growing rapidly under government incentives
• Tanzania, Mozambique, Brazil — modest domestic processing

3. Consumers (where the kernels end up)

• India — world's largest consumer (Indian sweets, gifting, snacking)
• United States — large consumer (snacking, ingredient)
• European Union — large consumer (snacking, ingredient, premium retail)
• Middle East — substantial consumer (gifting, snacking)
• China, UK, Australia, Russia, Japan — meaningful markets

The unusual geography

Most major food commodities are grown, processed, and consumed in broadly similar regions — coffee in Latin America, palm oil in Southeast Asia, wheat in temperate latitudes. Cashew is unusual: West African farms feed Asian factories feed Western consumers. A typical cashew in a New York retail snack pack might have been:

1. Grown on a smallholder farm in Côte d'Ivoire
2. Sold to a Vietnamese buyer at Abidjan port
3. Shipped 12,000 km to Ho Chi Minh City
4. Processed (shelled, peeled, graded) at a factory in Bình Phước province
5. Packaged and shipped 14,000 km to the US west coast

This three-continent journey is why cashew prices are sensitive to: West African weather (affecting RCN supply), Vietnamese processing capacity, sea-freight rates, currency moves in USD/INR/VND, and global retail demand.

Buying directly from origin

For buyers interested in shorter supply chains, two paths exist:

• Indian direct — buy from Indian processors that source domestic-only RCN. Available but at premium pricing.
• African direct — buy from emerging African processors (Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania, Mozambique). Lower volumes, higher quality variability.

Most large buyers still source through the Vietnamese processing hub because of scale, price, and supply reliability. But the multi-origin direct path is growing.