cashew=caju

little cashew trees, freshly grafted in the shade house built at a government agricultural seedling farm...

and once they're four years old, those little trees create the craziest looking fruit. you should really google that if you've never seen one.

if the government is successful in teaching farmers how to properly care for a cashew tree, which it seems, unfortunately, they often aren't, then they'll end up with lots of cashews! they come to the cashew shelling plant. this plant employs roughly 2,000 workers.

and there are LOTS of cashews to shell.
the urushiol in the shells is toxic and can eat away at fingers over time - they must be steamed before they are handled.
then they are cooled...

and then shelled in an enormous room with hundreds of men. these boys lose their fingers often. as soon as i walked in, the entire room broke out in grins and a lot of things that i think i am glad i couldn't understand.

the cashews are still unedible until they are dried in giant ovens for a day. the manager of the plant keeps his cost and environmental impact down by using the shells of the cashews to fuel all of the fires. he was very proud of his forward-thinking.

then this woman is sorting for quality...

and she's sorting for size.

it will take eight days for a cashew to be processed from the storeroom to the shipping room.

cashews are the highest paying crop Mozambique by far, but even at high prices for the farmer the majority of the cashew profits go to whoever is brave enough to drive a semi down roads/spots-of-flatness-between- the-potholes to take them to the ports.