For the last three weeks, a farmer couple in Kasargod, Kerala has started their day by picking the best cashew apples from their five-acre plantation. They choose the ripe apples and process them to make a pulp from which a refreshing and nutritious juice can be extracted.
Vishwakeshava Kuruveri and his wife Navyashree began this processing after receiving training from the ICAR- Directorate of Cashew Research in Puttur. The process is laborious. After the fruits are picked, they are washed well and then the two ends are chopped off. The fruit is cut in half and the pieces are made into a pulp in a mixer and the juice can be extracted by passing the pulp through muslin cloth. Around 30 apples are needed to prepare 1 liter of juice.
They sell at least 30-40 litres of juice a day to a retailer at Rs 100 per litre. This is good money for something that was earlier being simply composted. The demand is so high that they are now buying cashew apples from their neighbours at the rate of Rs 20 / kg and the neighbours are also helping them process the fruit.
When Down To Earth contacted Vishwakeshava, he was busy pulping to meet an order for 200 litres of the juice to be sold at a festival being held in Mangalore. The fruits are generally available from mid February to May. Seeing the market, the couple is hoping to process a large amount of the pulp for off season juice-making.
The cashew fruit consists of the nut, which is the true fruit, and the apple, which is the swollen pedicel connecting the fruit to the tree. The apple is fleshy, yellow-to-red and around 3-4 inches long.
At least 6 million tonnes of cashew apple are produced in India. Ripe apples have a short shelf life and ferment easily. A mere 1 per cent of this is used in the country, mostly to make feni, a traditional alcoholic beverage of Goa and a syrup in Maharastra. Compared to this, in Brazil, which is the centre of origin of cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale), as much as 25 per cent of its produce is used.
Efforts to increase the use of cashew apple have been made in India too. Around 50 products are available — 30 developed by the Cashew Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University, Madakkathara, Thrissur and 17 developed by ICAR- Directorate of Cashew Research in Puttur, Karnataka. Some 20-25 have been purchased by industry. These value-added products include jams, jellies, cider, syrup, cookies and fruit leather.
But there is little awareness about its nutritional and health benefits and for all practical purposes, cashew apple is a neglected food. “The place it deserves is not given,” said Shree Padre, editor of Adike Patrike in Karnataka who is getting people — entrepreneurs, farmers and scientists — together in an effort to promote cashew apples. As much as 95 per cent of people in India have not even tasted the juice, he added.
In an effort to change this, Padre has launched a WhatsApp group named Cashew Apple Value Addition (CAVA) which includes producers, entrepreneurs and scientists. The Directorate of Cashew Research organized an interface with industrialists where the best of the products were showcased and this generated a lot of interest.
According to J Dinakara Adiga, director of the ICAR-Directorate of Cashew Research, who is part of this WhatsApp group, this was done to ensure additional income to farmers and also sensitise consumers about the benefits of the beverage. “This is a win-win situation of both farmers and consumers,” he said. In an effort to involve more farmers into making value-added products from the juice, the directorate has given two free trainings to around 40 people in April and already some 6-7 people are processing the apples.
Padre is rooting for the zero-additive cashew apple juice as 85-90 per cent of the fruit is water and processing is extremely simple. The cashew apple can also be partially processed to form pulp that can be stored and used off season when the fresh fruit is unavailable. Tannin, which makes the throat itch on consumption, can be removed from the juice simply by adding a small amount of cooked rice water or cooked sago water. The tannins coagulate and settle, and the fresh juice can be decanted off and enjoyed.
At the recently concluded three-day cashew, mango and jackfruit mela (fair) in Mangalore, Karnataka, nearly 300 litres of juice was sold. “We did not expect such a good response,” said Bharathraj Sorake, founder of Raita Kudla Prathistana that had orgnaised the festival.
The general understanding is that the juice offers five times the earnings potential of the nut. Plantation Corporation of Kerala Ltd has 4,500 hectartes of cashew plantation and when the apples are available, they set up stalls to sell juice. The Periya unit in Kasargod is hoping to earn upto Rs 2 lakh this year.
When Suhas Marike, who owns a cafe in Puttur started selling the juice, he began with sample glasses of 35 ml for Rs 10 and found the response to be great. He has sold around 80 litres at the restaurant. The younger generation is interested in the juice, he observed.
The cashew apple is nutritious — rich in Vitamin C and minerals like magnesium and potassium. It has antidiabetic properties and as a home remedy, it is consumed to treat constipation. As the popularity is increasing, farmers have started making it at home for personal use too.
In response to DTE’s concern about the use of pesticides in cashew cultivation, Jalaja Menon, professor and head of the Cashew Research Station, Kerala Agriculture University informed that the juice has been tested and residues are not present. She explained that pesticide residues in cashew apple are not an issue as the spray is generally done when the
cashew is green and the apple has not formed. Also, the tree is planted in waste land and people go there only for plucking the nuts. Pesticides are generally used only when the tree is grown as a plantation.
In the Union Budget 2026-27, the central government announced plans to boost the Indian cashew industry by 2030. This initiative focuses on enhancing export competitiveness, upgrading post-harvest processing, and promoting cashew cultivation in coastal areas to increase farmer income, with a broader Rs 350 crore allocation for high-value crops.
With this, more and more cashew apples would be available for processing into the zero additive drink. This year, the entrepreneurs and farmers began very late and they do not have much for off season use. But they are hopeful for a strong start next year and ensuring the best value for the apple, said Marike.