Women workers at the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation crack the black husk of the nuts with a stick and peel it away for about five dollars per day in Kollam, India, long known as the cashew capital of the world (opposite, top). The cashews’ dark husks contain a resin akin to the toxin in poison ivy that can blister the hands of sensitive individuals (above). In the peeling room, the inner skin is removed and the cashews are sorted (opposite, bottom). The tree nuts, which are native to northern Brazil, were brought to India and Africa by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and eventually supplied the growing demand in south Indian cuisine as well as export markets in Europe and the United States. India is a large importer of unshelled cashew nuts, and processed cashews were once its fourth-largest export crop by value, but volume has plummeted over the last decade, as mechanical shelling machines came into use in other countries. Although a few government-owned processing facilities like this one are still in operation, competition from overseas processors is putting them out of business and the local women out of work.
