Organic Cashew Nuts from Tanzania

From nature with love

BIOTAN is a processor and exporter of Organic Cashew Nuts.

Our processing factory is located at Kisemvule, 15 kilometers south of Dar es Salaam and we are working with small holder farmers in Coastal Region. We organize our farmers in Organic Grower Groups and they provide the unique Tanzanian Cashew Nuts to us.

We are dedicated to organic and ethical business practices as well as to develop a sustainable enterprise that manages a value chain for organic farming products (cashew nuts and cashew apple) from Tanzania.

Organic

No synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers

Ethical

Transfer of value and fair working conditions to every sector in the chain.

Traceable

Record keeping, traceability, documentation

Environmental

Health & sustainability for humans, animals, plants and
our planet

Our processes

It takes a long way to get the cashew into your hand

It takes a long way to get the cashew into your hand. The journey from the farm in Tanzania to the shelf of a shop takes a long time and involves several processing steps.

Harvesting & Sun Drying

Farm level

Harvesting

Cashew apples are usually collected after they have ripened and fallen from the tree. After that they are dried in the sunlight for several days so that they can be stored for processing.

Sizing and Steam cooking

Processing factory

Sizing & Steaming

The first step in processing is sizing the raw cashew kernels into different sizes. Then they are treated with hot steam for 20 minutes in order to prepare them for shelling.

Shelling

Processing Factory

Shelling

Now it comes to the very complex process of shelling. At BIOTAN we have automatic machines for this step but also we do manual shelling for the very big kernels and very small kernels which come out unshelled from the machines.

Drying & Peeling

Processing Factory

Drying & Peeling

Now the kernels have to be dried so that the testa, a thin skin as we know it from peanuts, can be easily rubbed off in the next step by a machine.

Sorting & Grading

Processing Factory

Sorting & Grading

Now the kernels are sorted into different sizes and colors and separated from brokens. Rests of testa are removed and made ready for packaging.

Vacuum Packaging & Shipping

Processing Factory

Vacuum packing & Shipping

In a final sept we pack them in vacuum bags of 25 pounds. Two vacuum bags fit into one box and 700 boxes are shipped in one 20 feet container.

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Tonns processed

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Organic farmers

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Employees in the factory

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Containers per year

Organic Cashew Nut Processing Factory

Our processing factory at Kisemvule/Mkuranga District, 15 KM south of Dar es Salaam has a processing capacity of 5,000 tons of Organic Raw Cashew Nuts per year. Our team includes more than 320 people who work in different sections from shelling, drying, peeling up to sorting and grading. (s. fotos above)

Organic grower Groups

Our organic certified farmers are organized in a so called “Organic Grower Group”. Most of the farmers are very small scale farmers with only a few acres of land.

Demo & Research Farm

Our Demo & Research Farm at Vikindu/Vianzi in Mkuranga district is a location where we started various activities to demonstrate innovative ways of organic cashew nut farming. We also started research about pest control, farming technics and new ways of high density plantation.