Cashew Nuts

W180 to W450 wholes, plus SW, butts, splits & LWP

The W number on a cashew contract is not a quality score — it is a count. W320 means roughly 300–320 kernels to the pound (about 660–705 per kg), so a lower number is a physically bigger nut: W180 is around 170–180 per pound and is the largest, rarest whole grade, W450 is around 400–450 and the smallest. Size drives price almost linearly because bigger kernels are a smaller fraction of any given crop, not because they taste different. CBIL brokers the full ladder against AFI grading language: white wholes W180, W210, W240, W320 and W450; scorched wholes (SW, SW-2) where a heat mark during roasting has darkened the kernel without touching flavour; butts (B) and splits (S), where the kernel has broken along or across its natural cleft; and large white pieces (LWP), small white pieces (SWP) and baby bits at the bottom of the stack. Supply is arranged from Vietnamese processors (the world's volume centre, largely reprocessing West African raw nut) and Indian processors in Kollam, Mangalore and Panruti, with SGS or Intertek certification of count per pound, moisture at ≤ 5%, broken and defective percentage, foreign matter, aflatoxin and microbiological load including Salmonella-absent status.

Specify by what the kernel has to do, not by prestige. W180 and W240 are for whole-nut retail packs, gifting tins, cocktail nuts and anywhere the individual nut is inspected — you are buying appearance. W320 is the global workhorse and the grade most cashew price talk actually refers to. W450 delivers identical kernel at a discount where nuts are salted and mixed. Below that, SW is a genuine bargain when the nut is being roasted, coated or milled — the scorch is cosmetic, and buyers who reject it for a coated product are paying a premium to hide a mark under chocolate. Butts, splits and LWP are the honest choice for cashew butter, praline, ice cream inclusions, bakery and confectionery filling, where an intact kernel is destroyed in the first process step anyway. Aflatoxin governs your entry: the EU works to 2 ppb B1 / 4 ppb total for nuts intended for direct consumption, while many other destinations accept 15 ppb total — the split is worth 10–20% on landed cost, so we write the limit to the actual destination rather than over-specifying. Kernels ship vacuum-packed or nitrogen-flushed in 22.68 kg (50 lb) tins and cartons, container-load, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.