The Long-Coveted Cashews are Back!
Posted February 22nd, 2012
This week we welcome the return of the fabulously flavorful Just Cashews from Honduras. Check out their website to learn more about the origin of these delicious nuts.
In the interim, though, here’s a brief overview of their history:
In the 1970s cashew trees were introduced to Honduras, and they began to thrive. However, the local farmers, or campesinos, weren’t making money by selling raw, unhulled cashew nuts. This was mainly because of the middlemen who stepped in and took most of the profits they gleaned from reselling the raw goods to processors and exporters.
In 1981, the campesinos received assistance from a U.S. nonprofit organization to develop the local capacity to process and package the cashews, and a Honduran non-profit, APDP (Asociación Proyectos Del Pueblo) was established and organized the cashew cooperatives that are functioning today. Rural, democratically run campesino cooperatives of growers and producers perfected a safe, local processing technique that prepares cashews for export.
APDP has now dismantled but the co-op members are in the process of learning how to export their own product to ensure a higher level of self-sufficiency. The co-ops are currently obtaining Fair Trade certification through the Fair Trade Labeling Organization. In conjunction with Trocaire, an Irish development agency, Just Cashews is working to raise money to financially assist in building another processing facility for these cooperatives. This will allow the co-ops to process more of their own product, enabling them to retain more of the total income from the product within their own communities.
Just Cashews has developed a fair trade relationship with the
cooperatives that grow the cashews, to ensure that the farmers receive a fair price for their product, and have also arranged for organic certification of the co-ops by Bio Latina.
And now we can proudly say that these delicious cashewes are back on our shelves, by popular demand. It’s a product that not only tastes delicious, but that you can feel good about buying.
We currently have Whole Roasted Salted Cashews, selling for $14.29 per pound, and Whole Raw Cashews, available for only $12.19 per pound. Try some next time you come in!
Follow us on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
www.albertagrocery.coop/facebook