A Bandarban plant processes 4 tonnes of cashew a month and sells packs at Tk1,300 a kg

Five years ago a local agriculture-based company set up a cashew processing plant in West Balaghata, Bandarban town. When Prothom Alo visited in October 2023, it found 20 to 25 workers there, most of them women. Raw cashew brought from the orchards is dried in the sun, the large and small nuts are separated, boiled in a boiler, cooled and shelled, cut, sorted and packaged — the nuts go through nine steps in all before reaching the market.

The plant processes about 200 kg of nuts a day; by the manager's reckoning, an average of four tonnes a month. The women who do the shelling are paid Tk 200 a day; cutting pays Tk 6 per kg, so cutting 50 kg in a day earns Tk 300. If the cashew's acid touches the skin it causes blisters — the work is hard. Because large nuts are scarce, most of the nuts are cut on hand-operated machines.

Packed under the company's own name, this cashew sells across the country at Tk 1,200 a kg wholesale and Tk 1,300 retail. To expand the plant, the company is trying to increase its raw material supply by making contracts with orchard owners — the growers get a market and the plant gets a secure supply. According to the upazila agriculture officer, this is reducing dependence on imports.