Two years ago, I decided to travel to Ceará, Brazil, driven by my obsession with the cashew fruit. Despite its delicious taste and cultural significance in the region, I had learned that a large portion of this fruit goes to waste. My goal was to understand why this waste occurs and explore ways to mitigate it. Ceará provided the perfect setting, given its longstanding tradition and economic reliance on cashew cultivation.
Upon arriving in Ceará in July 2024, I briefly stayed in a local comunidade, a tight-knit community, where I observed firsthand the deep cultural ties to cashew products. Local families trusted cashew juice and sodas as healthy and natural beverages, while artificially sweetened sodas like Coca-Cola Zero were viewed skeptically as unhealthy or "unnatural". People were particularly proud of local brands, notably São Geraldo, a soda made from cashew apples. When I tried this soda, I was pleasantly surprised by its flavor, which reminded me of sweet apple juice but with a unique aftertaste. This experience sparked my desire to further explore cashew farming and processing.
My internship at Embrapa Tropical Agroindustry under dr. Rubens Sonsol Gondim, allowed me to immerse myself fully into cashew research. Embrapa is Brazil’s renowned agricultural research institute. The Embrapa unit in Fortaleza, was specifically founded to breed superior cashew cultivars adapted to the dry climate and sandy soils of Northeast Brazil. Through selective breeding, Embrapa has developed diverse cashew cultivars. Some produce fewer but larger and sweeter cashew apples, highly valued in local markets. Others focus on producing numerous cashew nuts, which are economically more valuable globally.
The Global Challenges of Cashew.
Globally, cashew nuts have become the primary economic product from cashew cultivation. However, the nut presents significant processing challenges. It is encased within a hard shell containing a toxic oil, rich in anacardic acid and cardol, which severely irritates and burns human skin. Smallholder farmers in countries like India and African nations often manually peel these shells, suffering painful chemical burns. Conversely, countries like Vietnam have built advanced factories that automate the peeling process. As a result, many raw cashew nuts harvested in Brazil and Africa are exported to Vietnam solely for processing. This detour exemplifies the fragmented and complex nature of the global cashew supply chain.
Unlike the nut, the cashew apple is very fragile, limiting its commercial reach despite its nutritional value, including high vitamin C content. Cashew apple spoilage is rapid due to its sensitive sugars, which begin fermenting shortly after harvest. Embrapa’s cultivars, selected for superior sweetness and larger fruit size, have improved local marketability. Nevertheless, harvesting remains labor-intensive and delicate.
Why the Cashew Fruit Remains Under Utilized.
During my field visits, I personally participated in cashew apple harvesting. Equipped with a basket and a harvesting stick fitted with half a plastic bottle, I learned the precise method required to ensure fruit quality. Each apple must be thoroughly inspected for ripeness; any green areas indicate sourness, reducing market value. Farmers typically harvest fruits located high in the canopy, as cashew apples thrive in direct sunlight at the outer edges of trees. To enable manual harvesting, many farms select dwarf cultivars and regularly prune the trees to maintain manageable heights and separate canopies.
Ripe cashew apples require only a gentle touch to detach. Carefully placed in padded containers, the apples must be protected from bruising. Fruits falling directly to the ground quickly spoil due to rapid sugar fermentation under intense sunlight. Therefore, it is important for farmers to perform daily checks throughout the harvesting season.
Troubling Trends of the Cashew Industry in Ceará.
Beyond the harvesting process, my field visits and interviews have revealed troubling trends. Over the past decade, the area dedicated to cashew cultivation in Ceará has shrunk by nearly one-third. Although cashew trees are resilient and thrive in poor soils, they are increasingly vulnerable to drought. Extended drought periods significantly reduce cashew yields, directly impacting both nuts and apples available for processing.
A critical insight was the lasting impact of drought-related disruptions on local economies. Unlike industrial experiences in my home country, the Netherlands, where I previously worked in a cheese assembly plant operating continuously with minimal downtime, cashew processing facilities in Ceará are severely affected by shortages and operate seasonally. Factories often shut down entirely during droughts due to a lack of raw material, and rarely reopen afterward. Some larger processing plants manage to source cashew nuts internationally from regions like Nigeria, but smaller local facilities permanently close, causing job losses and economic damage.
Policy Solutions to Revitalize the Cashew Industry in Ceará.
These experiences highlighted several essential policy lessons. Strengthening cashew supply chain resilience requires proactive climate adaptation measures.
The primary challenge is water supply. Irrigation enables a steady supply of cashew apples, but with water resources strained, less water needs to be used. It is very difficult to allocate water supplies fairly, as farmers will each use what they need. Whether that's formally or informally. The application of biochar might enable farmers to reduce some irrigation requirements. But it is clear a combination of measures are needed to reduce evapotranspiration. Perhaps biochar application with organic mulch could reduce water requirements in cashew trees and maintain a steady supply of cashew apples with less water use. More research and the correct combinations of financial incentives will be needed to scale these solutions beyond experimental and large farms.
The Brazilian government needs to provide emergency financial and operational support for processing plants, and strategic incentives to rebuild after disruptions. Similarly to how European and North American governments try to maintain their manufacturing capacity. Policy interventions should aim not only at enhancing agricultural productivity, but also maintaining and revitalizing local processing capacities during extreme weather events.
To expand the market for cashew apples, Brazilian authorities should actively support the international expansion of Ceará’s cashew fruit beverage sector. While Dutch and American companies benefit from strong government incentives, trade diplomacy, and networks of commercial support abroad such as through consulates, Brazil’s value-added products often lack this support.
Ceará, with its strategic location in Northeast Brazil and its long-standing ties to both Europe and West Africa, is uniquely positioned to lead a new wave of cashew-based global trade. Brazil should consider forging bilateral partnerships with West African cashew producers, many of whom already face similar challenges in value retention.If West Africa and north-east Brazil, coordinate their harvests, they could amplify their global influence and challenge the status quo of raw export dependency. In parallel, the United States is a more favorable market for cashew apple expansion than the European Union. While the EU enforces complex certification regimes and trade barriers that often force manufacturing into Europe, the U.S. offers a more open and non-colonial environment for agro-industrial products. Prioritizing the U.S. as a target for high-end cashew apple beverages and byproducts could serve as both an economic and diplomatic win.
Ultimately, my year in Ceará taught me the complexity and interconnectedness of agricultural supply chains. Breeding better cashew cultivars, improving post-harvest infrastructure, and implementing robust climate-resilient policies are all crucial to minimizing waste and sustaining local economies. Only an integrated approach addressing agricultural productivity, supply chain resilience, and economic sustainability can ensure that the valuable cashew apple and its globally sought-after nuts continue benefiting farmers, communities, and consumers alike.