The East Africa Harvest Calendar: Cashew, Vanilla and Sesame

At a glance

• Tanzanian cashew is harvested October–January and ships at full pace January–March.
• Tanzanian sesame comes off the fields June–September, with the shipping peak running July–October.
• Madagascar vanilla is picked mid-year and reaches the market cured from late in the year.
• Uganda's two flowering cycles deliver vanilla twice annually — around December–January and June–July.
• The commercial calendar runs ahead of the harvest: cashew volume is discussed from August–September, sesame firms up in May–June.
• Seasons drift — the quarters hold in a normal year, and an early warning from origin is worth more than any calendar.

Somewhere across our origins a harvest is always underway. Tanzanian cashew comes off the trees from October to January; Tanzanian sesame from around June into September; Madagascar's vanilla is picked mid-year and reaches the market cured from late in the year; Uganda's two flowering cycles deliver vanilla twice annually. Lay the three commodities on one calendar and a pattern appears that single-origin buyers never see — and that pattern is a purchasing plan.

The year, quarter by quarter

• January–March: Tanzanian cashew shipments at full pace from the October–January harvest; Madagascar's cured vanilla flowing to market; Uganda's December–January vanilla crop consolidating. The busiest booking window of our year.
• April–June: cashew moves to kernel shipments from stored crop; sesame harvest begins in Tanzania's growing regions from June; forward conversations open for new-crop sesame.
• July–September: sesame buying and shipment season at peak; Madagascar's green vanilla harvest runs mid-year with curing underway at origin; Uganda's June–July crop arrives. Quiet months for cashew — the gap smart buyers plan around.
• October–December: new-crop cashew harvest opens in the southern regions and early raw-nut shipments begin; cured Madagascar vanilla from the new harvest reaches exportable readiness late in the year; sesame shipments wind down.

Booked is not the same as harvested

The dates above are harvest dates; the commercial calendar runs earlier. Serious cashew volume is discussed from August and September, before a nut has dropped. Sesame programmes firm up in May and June as planting outcomes become readable. Vanilla is the extreme case: cured beans shipped at year-end were green pods in July, and buyers with fixed requirements engage before curing is complete rather than shopping the spot market at Christmas.

“Every commodity has a moment when quality is at its best and sellers are at their most negotiable — and it is never the same month. Buyers who work the calendar get both.”

— Asha Ngonyani, Quality Manager

How experienced buyers sequence the year

• Book cashew in the pre-harvest window (August–September) for first-quarter shipment, when allocation is decided.
• Fix sesame volumes as the harvest picture firms in early June, ahead of the July–October shipping peak.
• Place vanilla requirements with origin partners before cured stock is fully committed — late in the curing cycle, not after it.
• Use the third-quarter cashew gap to review the season's QC record and negotiate the next annual round.
• Spread arrivals deliberately: a calendar-aware programme lands product roughly quarterly instead of tying working capital up in one giant seasonal position.

One caution against over-reading any calendar, including ours: seasons drift. Rains arrive late, flowering disappoints, a strong crop ships early. The quarters above hold in a normal year, and we tell buyers as early as we can when the year decides not to be normal — that early warning is worth more than the calendar itself.