7) cashew nut processing is a complicated process not amenable to on-farm activity: Cashew nut processing is more costly and difficult compared with that for other dessert nuts. The cashew nut shell is more difficult to break and requires .onditioning, via humidification and roasting, before the kernel can be removed through decortication. This problem is exacerbated by the presence of the toxic, sulphurcontaining CNSL. Physical contact with CNSL ca result in severe burns or dermititis. Care must also be taken to prevent the CNSL from coming into contact with the kernel and therefore contaminating it. Cashew nut processing thus requires some technical skill and careful management. The multiple stages involved in cashew nut processing are illustrated in Figure 1 below.

8) there are a range of technologies available for cashew nut processing:<sup>4</sup> traditionally, the various functions of cashew nut processing were performed manually, using semi-skilled experienced workers. This remains the situation in India, the world's largest producer of cashew nut kernels. Since the 1960's, however, various mechanized processes and equipment have been introduced in several countries, most particularly for roasting, CSNL extraction, and decortication (deshelling). For the most part, raw material cleaning and sizing and kernel grading have remained very labor-intensive manual operations. Between the Indian, largely manual technology and the various types of melium-to-4arge-scale mechanical and semi-mechanical operations, there are significant differences in investment requirements, labor skills (and health) requirements, and levels of efficiency. In general, the Indian processing system involves lower investment and variable costs and achieves far greater efficiency in terms of kernel material yield and the proportion of whole kernels. That system does, however, require large numbers of experienced workers who work with unhealthy exposure to the CNSL. The mechanized systems are more vulnerable to breakdown (due to shortages of spare parts, lubricating oils, etc.), require large quantities of nuts for efficient operations', and operate well below manufacturer specifications wherever strict grading and sizing activities are not in place prior to the decortication process.

# H. The World Market Situation for Cashew Nuts

International trade in cashew nuts began from India after World War I. Following the introduction in the 1920s of improved packaging for long-distance transit, the trade expanded rapidly, especially between India and the United States. By World War II, cashew nuts had become the second most important traded dessert nut (after almonds). They have remained in this position for the past half century.

Although also consumed in the country's of production, the cashew nut is widely regarded as a luxury snack food, chiefly destined for markets in countries with above average per capita incomes. Cashew nuts are the most expensive of the major dessert nuts, with a unit value typically 40% higher than that of almonds and three times that of all nuts as a group.<sup>6</sup> Some 90% of cashews are eaten out-of-hand, in contrast to the pattern for other nuts which are more commonly ground down into paste or used for confectionary purposes. This explains the very large price differentials between 'whole' and 'broken' cashews and among 'whole' nuts of different sizes.

4 The technologies of cashew nut processing are examined in FAO (1969) and in Ohler (1979, p.201-13).

> 5 Most of the major manufacturers have produced systems with a rated capacity of more than 3000 tons/year. There are, however, a few manufacturers whose systems have rated capacities of 500 tons/year or less. It is the larger systems which have been put in place in Tanzania and Mozambique.

> **6** Only macademia nuts are more expensive than cashew nuts.

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