Cashew Factory

No wonder cashew nuts are so expensive! It's a very labour intensive process, not to mention that there is just one nut per fruit & not so many fruits per tree. Certainly nothing goes to waste. The fruit can be eaten as it is or squeezed for the juice which can be drunk fresh or fermented to make Fenni - an alcoholic beverage ranging from 15% proof through to a really staggering 70%! The nut itself goes through a process of drying, peeling, roasting, peeling again, frying, sorting & salting & the outer nut shell is processed to make oil, used locally to waterproof boats. It's all a very messy process - in the initial stages the workers have to smear their hands with another oil to protect them from the caustic properties of the raw cashew oil. This can lead to added danger in another way, too, since they have to operate a lethal looking nutcraker with oily hands!

From what we've seen they should cost even more - and the workers should see more of the profits! They earn on a piece work basis, 6 days a week, & will be lucky to earn as much as 1500 rupees a month - less than 20 pounds. They could be dismissed instantly if they were spotted eating any of the nuts, of course. It was interesting to note that all the manual work was done by women while all the supervising & office work was done by men!