In Tarkarli, at the Heart of India's Cashew Trade

Khursheed Dinshaw gets a backstage pass to the cashew industry in Tarkarli, Maharashtra, the pulsing heart of India’s thriving cashew trade.

It was a relaxed Sunday lunch at my friend Meena Patil’s home in Pune, and the star dish was a simple yet flavourful curry called Olya Kaju Chi Amti. Meena is from Tarkarli, a coastal town in the western state of Maharashtra, known for its pristine beaches and dolphin-inhabited backwaters; and the meal she had cooked was a Malvani one. I reached for a third helping of the curry and poured it over steamed rice, and Meena grinned at me, “This curry has cashew nuts cooked together with toor and masoor dal. But in in our ancestral home in Tarkarli, my grandmother would make it with fresh cashew fruit, since we had cashew trees in the garden.”

This was my initiation into cooking with cashew, a tree that was introduced to Goa in the 16th century, by the Portuguese. Incredibly adaptable, full of healing properties, it was soon being cultivated in India. Today, India is a world leader in cashew production. We export the kernels as well as cashew-nut shell liquid. Instead of discarding the shell, some ingenious woman no doubt, crushed the cashew nut shell to extract a liquid that is used to make fungicides, resin and paint.

After the roasting process

Interestingly, Maharashtra leads the country in cashew production. The industry offers employment in the agrarian and processing industries, and the kernels earn a large chunk of India’s foreign exchange. Last year close to 5225 metric tones of cashew kernel were exported, valued at Rs 336.23 crores. Once again, the principle of zero waste came into play: kernels and cashew-nut shell liquid is exported, and the rest of the tree is used for firewood, in manufacturing medicine, and as fodder.

The more I read, the more I began to experiment with cashew. I salted it; dusted the nut with spices; tried roasting and grinding it into a paste for curries; I tried cashew butter; used it to garnish desserts — I was a cashew convert. A jar of cashew powder is always on hand to sprinkle on salads or smoothies.

When it was time to choose a vacation destination, the scenic Konkan became an obvious choice. From March to May, the region becomes a haven for cashew lovers, trees laden with raw cashew. Driving into Tarkarli, we were greeted by shops brimming with the season’s bounty — huge weighing scales and piles of raw cashew stacked at each storefront

At Laxmi Vishnu Cashew Factory, a popular cashew processing factory in Tarkarli, Suman Mangaonkar, the manager, showed me around. “We purchase raw cashews from the market in bulk — buying capacity varies at each factory, of course. The manufacturing process begin with first sun-drying the nuts for about three days. When the cashews are purchased they are full of moisture, which means there is high risk of spoilage in storage,” he explains as we walk into a room stacked with gunny bags. Each bag contains 50 kilograms of cashews.

The next step is roasting. But before roasting, the cashews are immersed in a trough of water — to prevent them from burning during the drum-roasting process. Another round of airing takes place, this time indoors, to ready the semi-dry cashews for the next step.

The drum roasting machine has a gentle slope at the top and a fire burning underneath. A worker sits at the top, slowly dropping cashews down the drum. As the drum rolls, the cashews are evenly roasted.

“This is the most crucial step in cashew processing. The cashews must be roasted a precise amount of time; if they are roasted any longer, the oil within them burns,” explains Mangaonkar. The skill and experience of the worker plays a role too — too many nuts, and the insides remain raw; too few and they will burn. But roasted perfectly, the outside shell burns, and the nut inside is delectably roasted.

Further along, in the shelling area, women on the factory floor sit together. They place the nuts on a stone slab and break the small shells deftly with a pestle. Separate baskets are used to collect the burnt shell and the nut within, which emerges with its skin intact. It is a task that requires working fast and with finesse. Sujata Patil, a cashew processing worker tells me that wages are paid in accordance with the weight of nuts each worker shells. “The nuts are weighed at the end of the day and recorded on each woman’s factory card,” she says, never taking her eyes off the floor.

Before the processing begins

The sorting & grading of cashews

And finally, the cashew skin is peeled using a small steel instrument. This last process is done by women in their homes. “We take the cashews after they are weighed in the evening, remove the skin, and return the nuts to the factory in the morning. A minimum of 6 kilograms is given to each of us at a time,” said Veena Palekar, sitting next to Patil. Palekar has been de-skinning cashews for over a decade.

Back at the brick ovens where the nuts are roasted, a worker shovels in burnt shells to keep the fire burning. The nuts are roasted for close to 6 hours, to remove any residual moisture.

The cashews are finally graded based on quality, and divided into large, medium and small. Durable tin containers are used to store and transport the nuts, lightweight and hardy. Stored in a dry place, drum roasted cashews keep for 6 months, the roasting process shielding them from worms.

It is important to note that the cashew industry’s manufacturing process has come under global scrutiny for its brutal processes and high human cost, including the exploitation of children as cheap labour. The low wages paid to labour remains at stark contrast to retail prices. The labour-intensive shelling, done by hand, also comes at a high health cost, causing painful injuries. The workforce are not supplied with any protective gear. Furthermore, labour is paid for by weight of cashews shelled rather than by hour, and since the primary female workforce come from impoverished and marginalised communities, they are unable to bargain for better pay or working conditions. 

As I was looking to buy packets of cashews to carry back with me, Mangaonkar pointed out the premium bags of large-sized nuts, free from blemishes, with the skin intact. Global cashew demand remains on the rise. Rather than renounce the nut and its industry (that provide workers a livelihood), consumers can use their position to advocate for change. Community non-profits and unions, together with consumer advocacy, can pressure the industry and government to enforce fair wages, healthy and safety protocols, and worker-centric laws to build a better cashew industry.

Khursheed Dinshaw is an independent journalist based in Pune, India. She writes about food, travel, and wellness. You can follow her on Instagram @khursheeddinshaw.

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