Why Vietnam Exports the Most Cashews but Grows Only a Tenth of Them | Agriculture Technology

Vietnam sells more cashew kernels than any other country, yet it grows only about a tenth of the nuts it processes. Why? Follow one cashew from the orchard to the factory floor in this agriculture technology documentary. The cashew is stranger than it looks: the red "apple" is a false fruit, the real fruit hangs underneath it, and the shell hides an oil that can burn skin. In this film from Green Harvest Discovery, we follow the nut from the tree to the drying yard, across the sea in sacks, and through a modern processing plant. WHAT YOU'LL SEE • Why the red cashew apple is not the real fruit, and where the nut actually grows • How farmers gather and sun-dry the nuts, the oldest agriculture technology in the orchard • Where Vietnam's raw cashews come from: Cambodia, Ivory Coast and other origins • The agriculture technology inside a modern factory: steaming, shelling, hand peeling, colour sorting and grading • What happens to the cashew apple that most orchards throw away QUICK FACTS (rounded, approximate) • Vietnam exported about 767,000 tonnes of cashew kernels in 2025, worth more than US$5 billion (Vietnam Customs). • Its factories imported roughly 2.9 million tonnes of raw nuts; domestic orchards supply only about a tenth of that demand, according to the industry. • Ivory Coast harvested more than 1 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts in 2024 (INC estimate). • Cashew shell oil contains compounds such as anacardic acid and cardol, chemical relatives of the irritant in poison ivy. Raw cashews in their shells should never be handled without protection. Sources: Vietnam Customs via Vietnam News and antidumping.vn; International Nut and Dried Fruit Council; PubMed Central. Figures vary slightly between sources. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Cashew's Strange Secret 00:43 Inside a Cashew Orchard 01:46 Why Vietnam Imports Raw Cashews 02:29 Factory: Cleaning the Nuts 02:50 Steaming and Roasting 03:25 Sorting by Size 03:45 Shelling the Nuts 05:00 Drying the Kernels 05:24 Peeling the Skin by Hand 06:01 Colour Sorting and Grading 06:50 Packing for the World 07:08 The Forgotten Cashew Apple 07:31 What You Are Really Holding Subscribe to Green Harvest Discovery for more agriculture technology stories from farm to factory. Which surprised you more, the poison in the shell or Vietnam growing only a tenth of its own cashews? Tell us in the comments, and tell us which crop our next agriculture technology film should follow. #CashewFarming #CashewNuts #HowItsMade #FoodProcessing #Documentary #Agriculture #FarmToFactory