Shadowing Practice: Why Cashew Nuts Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Cashews grow in select tropical climates around the world, from the bottom of a hanging fruit like this.
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Just one kilogram of cashews can cost $10 wholesale.
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That's over seven times as much as peanuts.
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And in the U .S., retail prices for whole cashews can reach $15 per pound.
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But without intensive, precise processing, these nuts wouldn't be edible at all.
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So how exactly are cashews processed?
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And is this what makes them so expensive?
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In 2017, the world ate 770 ,000 metric tons of cashews.
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They're one of the most popular and valuable nuts in the world, worth over $6 billion today.
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Cashews grow in tropical locations like India, Vietnam, Ivory Coast, and here in Sri Lanka.
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The trees are a member of the same family as poison ivy.
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And like poison ivy, cashew plants contain a toxin called urushiol.
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It's found in the plant itself and the brown oil inside a nut's shell.
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It can cause burns, itches, and blisters, which is why unprocessed cashews are considered dangerous to eat or touch.
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It's also why they require more rigorous processing than other nuts.
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Each fruit grows just one shelled nut, called a droop, which workers separate by hand.
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The nuts must then dry under the sun to help draw out some of the shell's caustic liquid.
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The most difficult and dangerous step is splitting open the nut, since toxic oil still coats the droops.
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Cashews are brittle, so factories used to do this step manually to ensure machines wouldn't break the nuts.
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But doing this by hand has frequently raised issues within the industry.
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NGOs have called out some factories for overworking employees
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and putting workers at risk of burning themselves if they can't afford to buy gloves for protection.
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Today machines are advanced enough to crack the shells cleanly, keeping the majority of nuts intact and helping minimize risks to workers.
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After a machine splits open the shells, the next two crucial stages totally depend on workers, who have to do them by hand.
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The nuts are roasted to ensure, again, that the toxic liquid inside is destroyed.
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The next stage is particularly tedious, as it relies entirely on handiwork.
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workers must peel off the husk or the dry outer covering
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that surrounds each nut because it's high in tannins
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and could irritate your throat removing
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it is a skill one masters with practice experienced workers de -skin only about two
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and a half kilograms of cashews each night this step is not only difficult
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but also has the biggest impact on price
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Cashews are graded by several features, like color, weight, and condition.
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Large whole nuts are most valuable.
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If you have a lot of cashews, you can get a lot of cashews.
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Because cashews can only be harvested once a year, growers like Laharu save a portion of the nuts in stock
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so that they can continue making a profit in the months ahead.
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But it comes at a steep cost.
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Just stocking the nuts costs Laharu more than $65 ,000 each year.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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It was a long time ago.
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If you buy some of the cashews, you can buy some of the cashews.
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If you buy some of the cashews, you can buy some of the cashews.
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This causes prices to fluctuate a bit year -round.
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In December, Laharu's supply has decreased, so prices typically increase.
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But it also depends on each country's supply chain.
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While Sri Lanka processes and sells many of its own cashews domestically, other countries export much of what they grow.
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It's likely that many of the cashews you buy in the U .S or Europe were grown in Africa, processed in Vietnam or India,
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and finally exported to the Western market.
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Africa produces half of the world's supply of cashews.
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Ivory Coast, for example, produced about 730 ,000 metric tons of raw cashews in 2019.
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But it exported over 90 % of that.
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This is because Ivory Coast and other African countries still don't have a robust processing industry.
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Ivory Coast plans to expand domestic processing by 2024, but without it, cashews are significantly less valuable. In 2018,
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the export price of cashews processed in India
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and exported to Europe was 250 % higher than the price paid to Ivory Coast farmers customers.
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Vietnam, on the other hand, was one of the first countries to invest in automation, making it a key location for processing cashews.
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Today Vietnam is the largest cashew exporter in the world.
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In just the first three months of 2021, the country exported over 108 ,000 tons of cashews.
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Automation has also lessened the need to hire workers, which is a reason many factories in India and Sri Lanka still process manually.
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By hand or machine, processing cashews is no easy task.
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And the world's climate crisis could make it even harder.
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A 2013 report on the climate's impact on cashews shows unseasonal rains
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and heavy dew can impact the quality and quantity of the nuts.
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Just this year, Lahiru's harvest came late because of it.
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We're going to eat the nut and the nut.
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Amidst climate challenges, cashews continue to be popular.
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Healthy eating trends are key to driving demand, along with the versatility of the cashew itself, another reason the nut remains so valuable.
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Whether used as a snack, cooking paste, or an alternative to milk or butter, cashews have many applications around the world.
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researchers predict the market will grow to $7 billion by 2025.
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And although cashews are currently cheaper than they've been in recent years, demand is likely to drive prices higher in the future.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why Cashew Nuts Are So Expensive”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: cashew, nut, workers, price, processing. This video has 78 sentences and 960 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:20. The speaker talks at a steady 115 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| export noun | /ˈɛks.pɔɹt/ | Something that is exported. |
| shell noun | /ʃɛl/ | The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates. |
| ton noun | /tʌn/ | The short ton of 2000 pounds (about 907 kg), 20 hundredweights of 100 pounds avoirdupois each. |
| liquid noun | /ˈlɪk.wɪd/ | A substance that is flowing, and keeping no shape, such as water; a substance of which the molecules, while not tending to separate from one another like those… |
| toxic adjective | /ˈtɒk.sɪk/ | Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| tropical adjective | /ˈtɹɑ.pɪ.kəl/ | Of or pertaining to the tropics, the equatorial region between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south. |
| poison noun | /ˈpɔɪ.zən/ | A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested. |
| harvest noun | /ˈhɑɹ.vəst/ | The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting. |
| metric adjective | /ˈmɛt.ɹɪk/ | Of or relating to the metric system of measurement. |
| automation noun | /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/ | The act or process of converting the controlling of a machine or device to a more automatic system, such as computer or electronic controls. |
| manually adverb | /ˈmænj(u)əliː/ | By hand. |
| select verb | /sɪˈlɛkt/ | To choose one or more elements of a set, especially a set of options. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| call out verb | To specify, especially in detail. |
| draw out verb | To make (something) last for more time than is necessary; to prolong; to extend. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are considered · are roasted · are graded |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have called · has decreased · has also lessened |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | blisters, which is · workers, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as wouldn't, can't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shell /ʃɛl/, automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, cashew /ˈkæʃuː/, urushiol /ʊˈɹuːʃiˌɔl/
- Long words — get the stress right: automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/, urushiol /ʊˈɹuːʃiˌɔl/, versatility /ˌvɜː.səˈtɪl.ɪ.tiː/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like worker, export, shell.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.