Historical Development of the Cashew in Ivory Coast
Cashews, which bear the scientific name Anacardium occidentale and
belong to the family of anacardiaceae, and cashew nuts are grown in
northern, north-western and north-eastern Ivory Coast, where cashews and
cotton are the main cash crops. In Ivory Coast, cashew production as
such started in 1959. The first cashew trees were planted in 1959 and
1960. In partnership with villagers, with a view to improving the
protection of ecosystems seriously affected by deforestation and
fighting bush fires. The plantations underwent several developments over
the years.
The total production of cashew nuts in Ivory Coast rose from 6,300 tons
in 1990 to 335,000 tons in 2008, with over 20% of the increase occurring
between 2004 and 2010. And Ivory Coast produced 550,000 tonnes of raw
cashew nuts in 2014—about 22% of the global production. The figure is
expected to hit a record 600,000 tonnes at the end of the 2015
harvesting season, placing the country as one of the world’s top
producers.
The Economic Role of Raw Cashew Nut in Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast currently exports more cashew nuts than any other country
worldwide and is the world’s third highest producer of cashews, the
lion’s share of the production is exported in the form of raw cashew
nuts to India (71%) and Viet Nam (28%).
The annual “money-harvesting” season is in full swing in Ivory Coast.
For the fortunate cashew nut farmers in the central and northern parts
of the country, February through June is harvest time. Here cashew nut
growing has improved the lives of farmers significantly. They get more
money from it than they would make from growing food crops or cotton.
The impact has transformed their lives and they now refer to their
orchards as places where “money grows on trees.” Ivory Coast’s cashew
nut boom is remarkable.
To the Ivory Coast economy, the cashew boom presents an unexpected but
welcome opportunity to diversify agricultural exports beyond cocoa beans
and rubber. It will also help develop the country’s agro-industry.
However, to realize its full potential, Ivory Coast has to process and
add value to its raw cashews. While the country has the capacity to
process 65,000 tonnes of raw nut annually, it currently doesn’t reach
the target. Even then, the processing is usually limited at separating
broken nuts from whole nuts and packaging them in sacks for exports.
Raw Cashew Processing Towards Industrialization
In earlier days, cashew processing was mainly manual as it was a work
of the artisan whose art of processing was the key to realize maximum
value from the raw material, however, the raw cashew nut processing
sector has seen many technological interventions and breakthrough in the
various processing stages in Ivory Coast today. In Ivory Coast, the
products of processing are cashew kernels, the fruit and the shell. The
cashew kernel, which is the main product of
cashew processing,
accounts for roughly 85% of the value of the raw nut. Ivory Coast is a
special case when it comes to the marketing of cashew products. Indeed,
raw nuts account for almost 98% of the market, which is why Ivory Coast
is the world’s primary exporter of cashew nuts. The marketing of cashew
kernels is the main product of processing. And careful roasting of raw
cashew nut for easy shelling but without having burning or breaking
impact on kernel, peeling off the testa without using sharp tool to
avoid the scratch on the kernel and grading the kernel based on the
color and size are the key processing steps.
♦ Drying of raw cashew nut- The freshly harvested
raw cashew nut are dried by spreading it on the drying yard under the
sun for the period of 1-3 days depending on the moisture content. The
nut making rattling sound is the symbol that the raw nuts have been
dried properly. However, it is necessary to monitor the drying process
as over drying of raw cashew nut may cause scorched kernel which may
lead to higher breakage during shelling.
♦ Calibration process- It is also called size grading.
At this stage, the dried raw cashew nut is separated as per the nut
size. This practice is newly adopted by the processors as it is not only
very useful in efficient utilization of shelling machine but enhancing
the manual cutting/shelling rate also. In this process a calibrator/
grader machine
is used, the machine will have cylinder shaped sieves having whole of
various dimensions/size and raw cashew nut passed through different
wholes will be segregated and collected separately. In general, the
processors would grade the raw cashew nut mainly into the three sizes,
i.e. small, medium and big.
♦ Preparation for cashew shelling process- Steam
cooking or roasting of raw cashew nut. Roasting is a traditional method
and mostly abandoned now. In this technique raw cashew nuts is roasted
on the steel/iron tray directly heated by the firewood where the shell
gets burnt.
The raw cashew nut processing starts with cooking process. It helps in
softening the outer cashew shell so that cutting or shelling becomes
easy.
♦ Automated raw cashew nut cutting/shelling- At
present, shift to mechanical from manual is now taking place at good
pace. Availability trend of labor, plant capacity, investment capability
and business models are the key factors determining the extent of
shifting from manual to mechanical. In Ivory Coast,
shelling machine
has become fast moving equipment among the cashew processors. The large
capacity operators are now shifting and new entrants are necessarily
adding shelling machine in their plant. Some organic cashew processors
are now completely using shelling machine.
♦ Peeling of cashew kernel- Peeling is the last
process from where cashew kernel appears in ready-to-eat form. At this
stage, all the inedible layers are removed from the kernel, the price
enhancing value addition processes like grading, sorting, packaging etc
start from here. The process looks simpler but a lot of care needs to be
taken at this stage as around 60-75% of the processing cost is added up
in the output recovered from here. Now peeling is done by mechanical
process in Ivory Coast. In the mechanical process, the humified kernel
is fed in the
cashew kernel peeling machine
in which it passes through the rotating cylinder fitted with brush
where the testa comes out. The testa is then separated by blowing air
flow generated through the compressor.
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