From its origin in tropical Brazil the cashew tree was spread by Portuguese Explorers to East Africa and then India. Today it is fairly widely grown in tropical areas, particularly close to the equator. The cashew nut grows at the end of a cashew apple on a cashew tree which grows up to 30 foot tall. The nut itself has an extremely hard shell and the kernel inside is surrounded both by testa and caustic fluid which makes extracting the kernel a difficult process. As a result the crops of most African countries are exported primarily to India for processing. The processing of the nuts naturally leads to some becoming slightly discoloured or scorched and others broken. Although we concentrate mostly on white whole grades we are also happy to supply split, broken and scorched grades by request.
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