Cashew Production

Mim Cashew and Agricultural Products, Ltd. produces cashew nut kernels from its own plantation and outgrowers in a factory that has a capacity to process up to 2,000 tons raw nuts per year. The process of sorting, shelling, peeling and grading the raw cashew nut is time consuming and labour intensive. More than 300 people are working full time in processing.

The cashew kernels are vacuum packed and a large percentage are exported to European and North American retailers. A smaller portion of the kernels are sold locally.

• Sizes and qualities
  Mim Cashew and Agricultural Products, Ltd. processes cashew nut kernels of different sizes and qualities. The whole cashew nut kernels are divided in to 5 different sizes and qualities; Whole Whites (WW) 450, 320, 240, 210, 180, the latter being the biggest. The most common sizes are the WW 320 and the WW 240. The broken kernels are divided in to butts, splits, chips, large white pieces (LWP) and small white pieces (SWP).
  
• Production facts
  The process starts with sorting. The raw nuts are sorted in a specially designed machine. After that the raw nuts are steamed and dried in an open area for a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 48 hours, depending on atmospheric humidity. The raw nuts are then shelled in accordance with the different nut sizes. After shelling, the cashew kernels are peeled, and then graded again according to the different sizes. Finally, they are vacuum packed in bags of 22.68 kg (50 lbs) each.