Cashew traceability and due diligence for smallholder supply chains
From smallholder orchards through traders to processing abroad: first-mile cashew traceability and due diligence data.
Farmer1st gives cashew buyers a first-mile data backbone: verified smallholders and plots, raw cashew nut purchases linked to origin through intermediaries, and human rights and environmental data for due diligence. Cashew is not an EUDR commodity, but buyers still face due diligence expectations. Specific needs are prototyped with you in the Nursery.
What makes this first mile hard
Many intermediaries
Raw cashew nuts pass from farmers to village collectors, traders and exporters, often with cash purchases and little paperwork.
Processing in another country
Much raw cashew is shipped to processors in other countries before kernels reach the final market, which breaks the link to origin.
Short, intense trading season
Purchases concentrate in a few months, with prices set daily. Recording has to be fast and work offline at the point of sale.
Working conditions in processing
Shelling and peeling are labour-intensive. Buyers are expected to look at working conditions along the chain, not only at the farm.
Quality and yield variation
Nut count and outturn vary with orchard age and practices. Farmers benefit from agronomic advice that improves both.
Modules for this supply chain
Traceability & certification
From plot to lot: first-mile chain of custody, mass balance and audit-ready certification records, with origin attested by farmers.
Explore the module →Geo & polygons
Polygons captured in the field, validated, and assessed for deforestation up to today. Your calculation method, not ours imposed.
Explore the module →Field agent management
Missions, routes, offline collection and supervision for the teams who gather first-mile data, with quality checked as it comes in.
Explore the module →Human rights due diligence
Child labour monitoring and remediation, an independent grievance channel and living income data, from the households themselves.
Explore the module →AI agronomist
Practical agronomic answers in local languages, from a shared knowledge base, for farmers and the teams who support them.
Explore the module →Training & quizzes
Train the right farmers, test what stuck, train again where it didn't, and measure the impact on the indicators you report.
Explore the module →Cashew is one of the most fragmented smallholder supply chains, and one of the least documented. Farmer1st is the first-mile infrastructure built around farmers: a farmer-controlled network where companies, governments and organisations collect, verify and share origin data, and build the services they need on top of it. For cashew, it keeps a record of who grew the nuts and where, from the orchard to the processor.
Is cashew covered by the EUDR?
No. Cashew is not one of the commodities covered by Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, whose full list of covered commodities is in our EUDR guide. Cashew buyers are not exempt from due diligence expectations, though. The CSDDD asks large companies to identify and address human rights and environmental impacts in their chains of activities, EU rules against products made with forced labour cover all products, and many customers now ask for origin data as a condition of purchase.
Why is cashew traceability difficult?
Raw cashew nuts are bought in cash, in small quantities, during a short and intense season. They move through village collectors, traders and exporters, and are often shipped to another country for processing before kernels reach the final market. Each step can lose the origin. First-mile traceability has to start at the first sale.
How do you record cashew purchases at the first mile?
Field agents register smallholders and map their orchards offline-first, with AI added to support them and the reviewers. At the point of sale, each purchase is recorded against a verified farmer, and the list of contributing farmers travels with each lot. Traceability & certification keeps the chain of custody auditable through traders and exporters, and Field agent management keeps the season’s campaigns organised.
What does due diligence look like for cashew?
Due diligence starts with knowing where the nuts come from and who is involved. Plot data from Geo & polygons supports environmental risk assessment. Human rights due diligence adds household surveys, grievance channels and remediation follow-up, both at farm level and further along the chain, so you can show how risks were identified and addressed.
Can the same data help farmers?
Yes. Cashew yields and nut quality respond to orchard management. The AI agronomist answers farmers’ questions on pruning, pests and harvest handling, and Training & quizzes delivers good agricultural practices to the farmers who need them and measures what was learned.
What if our cashew programme needs something specific?
A traceability link to an overseas processor, a premium distribution, a specific buying-station workflow: we assemble the existing modules and build the missing piece with you in the Nursery. You use it, we adjust, and it runs on the same network.
Frequently asked questions
Is cashew covered by the EUDR?
No. Cashew is not one of the relevant commodities listed in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. Buyers still face due diligence expectations from the CSDDD, forced-labour rules and their own customers, which require first-mile data on origin and working conditions.
How do you trace raw cashew nuts through traders?
Each purchase is recorded at the first point of sale against a verified farmer and plot, and the list of contributing farmers travels with each lot through collectors, traders and exporters.
Can the link to origin survive processing abroad?
Yes, when the processor receives the lot's origin record with the shipment. The origin data sits on the network, so the processor and the final buyer can see the plots behind a lot, as far as farmers have consented to share.
Why map cashew plots if the EUDR does not require it?
Plot data supports environmental risk assessment, customer requirements and agronomic programmes. It also means you are ready if requirements change, without collecting the data again.
Tell us about your supply chain.
Ten minutes with our scoping assistant. We come back with a first sketch of your service.
