How the Cashew Travelled the World: From Brazil to Sri Lanka and Beyond

It surprises many people to learn that the cashew isn't native to South Asia. The cashew tree comes from north-eastern Brazil, where local people knew it long before Europeans arrived. They ate the juicy cashew apple and used the tree for many things, and the fruit was known by a local name that gave us the word 'cashew' through Portuguese.

If you're curious about the word itself, see Caju, Kaju, Cashew: one word, travelling the world.

In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers brought the cashew tree from Brazil to their colonies in India, around Goa. At first the tree was planted for a practical reason: it grows well in poor soil and helped hold the coastline together and prevent erosion. Only later did people realise how valuable the nut was.

From India, the cashew spread across Southeast Asia, and the Portuguese also took it to their colonies in Africa, including Mozambique. It adapted well to warm, dry regions on both continents. Today, some of the world's biggest cashew producers are in Asia and Africa, rather than in the tree's home country.

The cashew reached Sri Lanka in the same era, through the Portuguese presence on the island, and it became a crop of the dry zone, especially along the north-western coast around Puttalam. Our post on the history of cashew in Sri Lanka tells that part of the story in more detail.

It's an unusual journey: a tree first planted to protect soil ended up giving us one of the world's most popular nuts. Over time, the cashew moved from backyards to plantations, and processing it became a major industry, with a series of careful steps that we describe in how a cashew is grown and processed.

Now cashews are grown on several continents. We look at the biggest producers in where are cashews grown? The nuts we roast at Kajuwa come from farms in Puttalam, a long way from Brazil but a very good home for the tree. You can taste them in our Cooking Cashew or any of our roasted flavours.