Retail & Wholesale
Whole grades from W180 to W450, splits and pieces for the kitchen, and small-batch roasted flavours. Freshly processed, hand-graded and packed the same week.
How it's made
The raw nut
Grey, kidney-shaped and hard as a stone. The shell holds a caustic oil, so it is never cracked by hand.
Steamed and cut open
Twenty minutes under steam softens the shell. A hand cutter splits it in two — one nut at a time.
Out comes the kernel
Lifted out whole, still wrapped in its thin brown skin — the testa.
Dried, then peeled
Hours in a hot-air dryer loosen the skin; it is peeled away by hand, flake by flake.
Graded and packed
The ivory kernel is sorted by size — W180 to W450 — and vacuum-packed the same week.
Step by step
Every cashew you buy from us has been through these eight steps — most of them by hand, at our unit in Panruti.
An evergreen that loves sandy coastal soil and hot summers — which is why the Panruti–Cuddalore belt grows some of India's best cashews. A tree starts bearing in 3–4 years and keeps going for decades.
Did you know? One mature tree gives only 8–10 kg of raw nuts a year.
Clusters of tiny pink-and-white flowers appear at the tips of the branches after the winter. Bees do the rest — a good flowering season decides the whole year's harvest.
Did you know? Each cluster has hundreds of flowers, but only a handful set fruit.
The juicy red-yellow 'cashew apple' is actually a swollen stalk. The real fruit is the grey, kidney-shaped nut hanging beneath it — one nut per apple, one kernel per nut.
Did you know? The apple is eaten fresh or made into juice and feni; the nut is what we're after.
Ripe apples drop to the ground; the nuts are twisted off, cleaned and spread in the sun for two to three days. Dry nuts store well in jute sacks until they are processed.
Did you know? Nuts are dried to about 8% moisture — any wetter and they spoil, any drier and kernels break.
Raw nuts are steamed under pressure for about 20 minutes. This softens the tough shell and neutralises the caustic shell liquid so the kernels can be cut out without damage.
Did you know? The shell oil (CNSL) burns skin — it's never touched by hand, and is sold on for paints and brake linings.
Each cooled nut is cut open one at a time on a hand-operated cutter and the kernel is lifted out whole. Getting it out in one piece is what makes a 'whole' grade — and a skilled hand.
Did you know? A good operator shells about 10–12 kg of nuts in a day.
Kernels go into a hot-air dryer for several hours so the thin brown skin (testa) loosens and comes away cleanly. Then the skin is peeled off by hand, leaving the ivory kernel you know.
Did you know? Peeling is the slowest step — that skin is the reason cashews cost what they do.
Whole kernels are sorted by size — W180, W240, W320 — and splits and pieces are separated. Everything is checked by eye, then vacuum-packed the same week it's graded.
Did you know? 'W320' means white wholes, about 320 kernels to a pound (~700 per kg).
Photos: Cashew apple by Upendra Shenoy (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Raw nut by Omar Hoftun (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Cut shell by Eric Gaba (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Kernel by Gausanchennai (CC BY-SA 4.0) · others CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Why buy from us
We steam, shell, peel and grade every kernel ourselves, so you get consistent quality and honest grading.
Orders are packed the same week in vacuum-sealed pouches. No months on a warehouse shelf.
No middlemen. Retail packs for homes and honest per-kg rates for shops, traders and exporters.
For shops, traders & exporters
Any grade, packed in 10 kg tins or custom pouches. Send us your requirement and we will reply with today's rates.
