Cashew trading, in plain words

No futures market, a quality hidden inside the shell, and most of the crop shipped raw to Asia. Cashew in plain words, and how Apollo keeps it in one book.

Cashew in one minute

Raw cashew nuts (RCN) grow mostly in West Africa. Côte d'Ivoire is the largest producer.

Most of the crop leaves Africa raw, in its shell. Around 84 to 90% of West African cashew goes to Vietnam and India, where it is shelled.

Then the white kernels travel again, to Europe, the US and the Middle East.

How a cashew price is made

There is no cashew futures market to follow. The price is a plain number, usually in US dollars per tonne, agreed between buyer and seller.

What the buyer really pays for is the kernel inside. So quality is written in the contract, and measured on samples.

Example

Quality is given as KOR: the pounds of kernel you get from one 80 kg bag.

A KOR of 48 means 48 lb of kernel, about 21.8 kg, from 80 kg of nuts.

A bag at 48 gives about 9% more kernel than a bag at 44.

Same weight, same look on the quay. Not the same value.

Four traps that cost real money

1. No futures, no easy hedge. Cocoa and coffee traders can hedge on an exchange. Cashew traders cannot. Every open tonne is a price risk you carry yourself.

2. Three numbers decide the price. KOR (pounds of kernel per 80 kg bag), nut count (nuts per kg, fewer is bigger) and moisture (usually 12% at most for export). Write all three in the contract.

3. Two samples, two results. The quality is measured at origin and again at arrival in Asia. Keep both results side by side, lot by lot: that is where disputes start.

4. Not in EUDR, today. Cashew is not one of the seven EUDR commodities. Cocoa and coffee are. If you trade both, your compliance work is not the same on each.

What Apollo does for a cashew desk

  • A cashew contract has its own quality fields: outturn in lb per 80 kg bag and nut count per kg for raw nuts, and for kernels the AFI colour, count per lb, broken and scorched.
  • Stock is tracked lot by lot and warehouse by warehouse, from the port of loading to the processor. Stock is not a total. It is lots.
  • Quality and weight claims are recorded per lot, with their deadlines.
  • Supplier invoices are checked against the contract, the bill of lading and the weights before you pay. Every invoice arrives already checked.

Frequently asked questions

What is KOR in cashew?

The kernel outturn ratio: how many pounds of kernel you get from one 80 kg bag of raw cashew nuts. It usually sits between about 44 and 52 lb.

What is the nut count?

The number of raw nuts in one kilogram. Fewer nuts per kg means bigger nuts, which usually means better kernels.

Is there a cashew futures market?

No exchange contract serves as a cashew benchmark. Prices are agreed directly between buyer and seller, usually in US dollars per tonne.

Does EUDR apply to cashew?

No, cashew is not among the seven commodities covered by EUDR: cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood.

Sources

Facts checked on 29 October 2026. Prices in the examples are illustrations, not market quotes.