Supermarket Perimeter - December 2019 - 40

PEPPERS

ACCORDING TO SUPPLIERS, the bell and hot pepper growing seasons
have been good with favorable weather, and expectations are for steady
supplies this year.
These industry experts describe what they see as the latest trends,
including the popularity of the shishito pepper, and best practices for
productive pepper promotions.
Lance Jungmeyer, president of Nogales, Arizona-based Fresh
Produce Association of the Americas, says he continues to see
increased acreage in protected agriculture for sweet bell peppers and
hot peppers grown in Mexico.
"This has led to an earlier start to the bell pepper harvest and
extended the Mexican season too, smoothing out gaps," he says. "So far,
the weather has been good with good water availability."
Many pepper producers from the U.S. and Canada have diversiﬁed
their supply lines in Mexico using protected growing, Jungmeyer says.
The greenhouse environment lets the peppers change color but with
pest control and without sun damage.
One of these companies is Vancouver, Canada-based The
Oppenheimer Group, which exclusively markets greenhouse peppers
from Mexico-based Divemex.
"We are very excited that fruit quality at the start of the season has
been excellent," says Aaron Quon, executive director of the greenhouse
category for Oppy. "That will continue as we begin to ramp up production from other growing areas in Mexico. We are now producing yearround out of Mexico with our newest facility growing organic peppers
in the summer period."
"We'll be promoting red, orange and yellow sweet bell peppers in
bulk and value-added packs heavily this winter along with mini sweet
40 - DECEMBER 2019

peppers - all in both conventional and organic," he adds.
Ray Wowryk, director of business development for Leamington,
Ontario-based Nature Fresh Farms, says sweet bell peppers remain the
workhorse of the pepper category.
"For the bell pepper season coming up, we will have good supply
over the winter months, with increased acreage in Mexico and offshore
from Spain and Israel - everything subject to weather," he says.
Some pepper variety supplies get tight during the winter due to less
product coming out of the ﬁelds. But Alex Berkley, director of sales
for Frieda's Specialty Produce, Los Alamitos, California, says she sees
steady supplies this season. Frieda's offers shishito and Thai peppers
year-round.
Prime Time International, Coachella, California, has bulk red, yellow,
green and orange bell peppers and 1-pound and 2-pound sweet mini
peppers available in promotable volume this season, with both ﬁeldgrown and hothouse varieties.
"Our winter program is just beginning for the season. So far, everything is on track for a successful year," says Katy Johnson, marketing
assistant for Prime Time International. "To date, the weather for winter
plantings has been good and nothing drastic has altered the harvesting
forecast."

Shishitos make their mark
A very trendy category option this season is the shishito pepper, which
Wowryk of Nature Fresh Farms describes as hot, but not too hot (one in
10 are likely to be hot).
"From a culinary standpoint, we're seeing a lot of restaurants introducing shishito peppers as appetizers - for example, roasted and

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BY CHRIS CRAWFORD

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Supermarket Perimeter - December 2019

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