Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Cashew nuts: Overview

Snack kernels, vegan cheese and brake-pad resin from one nut

What this tab covers What the commodity is used for, why, in what volumes and with what alternatives, and its chain from mine or field to end user. Also the latest price moves, top recent news, three things to know, and buttons into each tab.

Key uses

UseShareAnnual volumeWhy this commodityAlternatives
Snack kernels (roasted, salted, flavoured and in nut mixes)n/a n/a basis Cashews are sold as a premium snack because of their mild taste, buttery texture and kidney shape, which come out whole only after careful hand or machine shelling. Whole white grades (such as W240 and W320) earn the highest prices; the US took 27.7% of world kernel import value in 2024. FAOSTAT 2024; UN Comtrade HS 080132, 2024 Almonds
Peanuts
Pistachios
Mixed seeds
Indian cooking and sweets (kaju katli, gravies, festive gifting)n/a about 0.46 Mt of kernels a year in Indiabasis Cashew paste thickens and enriches gravies, and kaju sweets are central to festival gifting. Rising incomes have made India the largest kernel consumer, which is why it now exports far less than it once did. APEDA Market Intelligence Cell, cashew dashboard, Oct 2025 Almonds and melon seeds (magaz)
Cream and khoya in gravies
Confectionery, bakery and ingredients (pieces, cashew butter, plant-based milk and cheese)n/a n/a basis Broken grades (splits, butts and pieces) cost less than wholes and go into chocolates, biscuits and baked goods. Cashews blend smoothly, so they are a base for vegan cheese, creams and milk drinks.Almonds and hazelnuts
Oats and soy (plant milks)
Coconut
Cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) for industryn/a n/a basis The shell contains a caustic oil, mainly anacardic acid and cardanol, that processors extract as a by-product. It is used in brake linings and clutch facings, resins, coatings and surfactants because it resists heat and friction.Petroleum-based phenolic resins
Cashew apple (juice, feni, animal feed)n/a about 1.39 Mt recordedbasis The fleshy false fruit is juiced in Brazil and fermented and distilled into feni in Goa. It spoils within a day of falling, so most is wasted. FAOSTAT 2024 Other fruit juices and spirits
No published world split of kernel uses was found. India's domestic demand is from APEDA's Oct 2025 dashboard; other uses are described qualitatively.

From field to user

  1. Orchards Cashew trees cover 6.94 Mha worldwide and yield 611 kg of nuts per ha on average (FAOSTAT 2024); India has about 12 lakh ha, nearly 40% of it older than 25 years (APEDA).
  2. Harvest and drying Nuts fall with the cashew apple, are separated by hand and sun-dried to raw cashew nuts (RCN).
  3. RCN trade Africa grows about 30 lakh t of RCN but can process only 9.35 lakh t, so most is shipped to Vietnam and India (APEDA, Oct 2025).
  4. Processing Nuts are steamed or roasted, shelled, dried, peeled and graded into whole and broken kernel grades; CNSL is extracted from shells.
  5. Kernel trade Vietnam supplied about 64% of world kernel exports in 2025, India about 5% (APEDA).
  6. Roasting, packing and retail Importers and snack companies in the US, EU, China and the Middle East roast, flavour and pack kernels.

Price movement snapshot 2026-10-25

No public daily or monthly benchmark price for this commodity in the datasets used.

World production 4.24 m tonnes, 2024 Largest producer Côte d'Ivoire 22.27% of world

Three things to know

  • Fruit and nuts, mainly cashew, made up 88% of Guinea-Bissau's exports in 2013-2017 (Radetzki & Wårell).
  • World cashew output rose fivefold between 1990 and 2024, from 0.83 to 4.24 million tonnes in shell (FAOSTAT).
  • The United States bought 27.7% of world shelled-cashew imports by value in 2024 (UN Comtrade).

Top recent news snapshot 2026-10-25, last 30 days

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ExtractionProductionStocksCyclesTradingMovementCriticalityCharacteristicsEmissions