Cashew Apple Beverage Fetches Money

May 13, 2026

A farmer couple in Kasargod, Kerala has started their day by picking the best cashew apples from their five-acre plantation.

From Cashew Plantation to Juice Production

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.

Growing Demand Creates New Income Opportunities

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.

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.

Cashew Apple Remains Largely Untapped in India

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.

Experts Call Cashew Apple a ‘Neglected Food’

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.