Noix de cajou (Cashew nut)

The cashew tree is native to northern Brazil, where he was also cultivated long before the arrival of the colonists.There are four centuries, in 1578, the Portuguese colonists brought back to this country cashews in African territory (Mozambique) and to Asia. Portuguese galleons also sailed off the sunny beaches of the west coast of India to dock at Cochin, while commercial capital of the province of Kerala. They brought their culture and of course, the first cashew trees.

Cashew quickly entered the popular customs of these countries and spread successively in the Southwest and Southeast. The production of shelled nuts remained long specialty Indians.

Today Indian plantations cover nearly half a million hectares with an annual output of 400,000 tons of shells nearly 60 000 tonnes of shelled seeds