Tanzania Cashews: Market, Origins & Sourcing Guide

Overview

Cashew is one of Tanzania’s most important agricultural export crops, grown predominantly by smallholder farmers along the southern coastal belt. The crop is harvested, graded, and sold as raw cashew nut (RCN) — the in-shell nut, prior to kernel extraction — with the bulk of national output shipped abroad for processing rather than shelled domestically. The sector is regulated by the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT), a statutory body established under Act No. 18 of 2009 and headquartered in Mtwara.

Production & Growing Regions

The core cashew belt lies in Tanzania’s southeast, historically the “Mtwara Zone.” Regions actively trading raw cashew nut through the formal auction system are Mtwara, Lindi, Ruvuma, and Pwani (Coast Region), with Tanga and central-zone regions beginning auctions in January 2026. Mtwara is consistently the dominant producing zone; in the 2025/26 season to date, Mtwara alone accounted for roughly 232,500 of 430,961 tonnes sold nationally, with Lindi second at around 140,000 tonnes.

Total national RCN production for 2024/25 was reported at approximately 528,263 tonnes, while the volume actually marketed through the formal auction system that season was 406,362 tonnes — implying a meaningful share of the harvest moves outside the official trading channel. Earlier historical figures put regional shares at roughly 70% Mtwara, 18% Lindi, 8% Pwani, and smaller contributions from Ruvuma, Tanga, Iringa, and Dodoma, though these older percentages should not be read as current.

The Warehouse Receipt System and Auction Marketing

Tanzania markets nearly all of its cashew crop through a mandatory warehouse receipt system (WRS). Farmers deliver graded RCN to warehouses operated by primary cooperative societies and unions, which issue warehouse receipts representing the deposited quantity and grade. Buyers then bid competitively in auctions for these lots, a process progressively digitized since the 2020s through the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange’s (TMX) Online Trading System.

The system has produced large recorded price swings: farm-gate prices reportedly roughly doubled at the opening of the 2024/25 auctions versus the prior season, with standard-grade RCN trading in a band of roughly TZS 1,910–3,520/kg during 2025/26 auctions. Recurring friction exists between cooperative-union-run auctions (historically dominated by export buyers) and a parallel “primary market” mechanism giving local processors more direct access to raw material.

RCN vs. Kernel Processing

Tanzania sells the overwhelming majority of its crop as unprocessed RCN rather than shelled kernels. Estimates of domestic processing utilization range from roughly 5% up to a historical installed capacity around 42,000 tonnes, against a harvest now exceeding 500,000 tonnes. Most raw nuts are exported to India and Vietnam for processing before returning to global markets as kernels. The government has announced plans for expanded domestic shelling capacity, including a large processing facility project in Mtwara region, though these should be treated as announced targets rather than completed capacity.

Grades and Quality

RCN quality is assessed primarily on out-turn (kernel weight recoverable per 80kg bag, in pounds), moisture content, nut count per kilogram, and defective-nut proportion — standard international metrics. Historically, Tanzania graded cashew into three tiers (“standard,” “under,” “reject”) through village-level sorting prior to the sector’s 1994 market liberalization; a single current, officially standardized grade schedule from primary CBT sources could not be verified, and buyers needing contractual grade specifications should confirm directly with CBT or TMX trading rules.

Season and Timing

Harvest runs October through December, with auctions typically opening shortly after and running into following months. In the 2025/26 season, southern-zone auctions were largely complete by the time central-zone and Tanga auctions began in January 2026.

Trade and Export Context

Cashew is a major foreign-exchange earner: export revenue for the 2024/25 marketing season was reported at over TZS 1.46 trillion, with India and Vietnam as cited primary destinations. Because so much of the crop leaves as RCN, Tanzania’s export statistics are heavily shaped by raw-nut trade flows to Asian processing centers rather than direct kernel sales to Western consumer markets.