Wreathed in smoke, women roast cashew nuts in Maputo to support their families

Sitting at the door of a house in Maputo, wreathed in the smoke of cashew nuts roasting, two women, both named Rosalina, support their families with a business that has spanned generations and is once again gaining traction in Mozambique: cashews.“I wake up at three in the morning to start cracking nuts, at that very time, not long ago,” Rosalina tells Lusa, sitting at the door of her home made of zinc sheet metal and already darkened by the constant soot.

A cashew nut seller, she spends almost all day sitting there, carrying out an artisanal process that involves roasting the nuts and cracking the kernels, one at a time, to fill the glasses displayed in front of her for customers.

Rosalina Justino complains about the price of cashews, fatigue, and stomach pains due to the daily smoke, a 30-year routine that pays the household bills and the education of her children, some of whom are already at university. She recalls a time when she could buy a cup of cashews at the market for 50 meticais (€0.67) and now it costs three times as much, cutting into her income.

“The profit is small, there’s not much profit because the cashews are expensive,” she laments, holding a bucket of ready-to-eat cashews, which she sells for 120 meticais (€1.60) a cup, while complaining about the lack of customers in the local market.