The National Pepper Conference:
25 Years and Going Strong

by David G. Jackson

The state of pepper agriculture is in flux, and the past two years have been years of change. El Nino, labor costs, plant diseases, mechanical harvesting––all were grist for the mill at the 14th biennial National Pepper Conference held in October in San Antonio, Texas.

A humorous presentation on the Cultural Uses of Chile set the tone for the conference. Dr. Janet Long Solís, an anthropologist with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who has written two books on the history and cultural use of chile in Central America, told of the use of chile going back thousands of years as evidenced by Mayan and other ancient rock carvings.

"Burning piles of chile were used to discipline children and to fight off enemies. Chile was used to pay taxes in addition to its use as food," she said. In addition, she talked about the rain god of the Aztecs who is shown holding stalks of corn and chile, and how offerings are made to San Francisco, the patron saint of chile farmers, at the current Fiesta of the Chiles that is held in October in the mountain villages of Guerrero State. "The chile ceremonies are part of the life cycle from birth to death," she said. "Chile is also used to cure several illnesses and to purify a body before burial. But with the modernization of many areas of Mexico, these ceremonies are becoming fewer and may soon be lost," she noted sadly.

Field trip participants watch a mechanical harvester in action. This unit is used to harvest Jalapeños in West Texas.

Research on genetics dominated the technical sessions. Papers on the selective breeding of peppers to combat plant diseases and insects, and to improve yield and make mechanical harvesting more effective were presented, as were basic research on genes that provide vitamins, flavonoids, caratenoids, ascorbic acid, antioxidants, and topcopherols. Several scientists presented information on the uses of capsaicin for medical and industrial purposes. Pepper consumption has been linked to the reduction of certain kinds of cancer, and has been touted as a pain reliever. Chile has also been found to enhance the immune system. Red chile is a good source of Vitamin C, with yellow pepper being the best source for quercetin, luetolin and Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid). Research is concentrated on the production of these substances at various stages of plant maturation.

Other sessions reported new innovations in cultural management practices. Papers included experiments on the use of waste from a shrimp farm for pepper fertilizer; how the Freedom–to Farm legislation has increased the potential for growing peppers in rotation with cotton and other crops in West Texas; the use of various mulches and other bio mass covers for pepper fields; and the spacing of plants to promote optimum growth.

Pest management is always on pepper growers' minds and papers covered the use of various pesticides and herbicides that will meet USDA approval. Powdery mildew, photophore blight, potyvirus and bacterial spot were some of the subjects covered.

Several speakers from both Mexico and the U. S. discussed labor problems. The increasing use of mechanical harvesters is the wave of the future. Farmer Glen Brosch of Slayton, Texas demonstrated a mechanical harvester on a jalapeño field owned by Marcel Grothues. The field had been abandoned "because cheaper Mexican peppers brought the prices so low that it would have cost me money to harvest it," said Marcel. "Mechanical harvesting will mean the loss of up to 10 percent of the crop," said Glen, "but that is the price we will have to pay if we want to grow jalapeños in the U. S."

Pepper Economics 101

This view was seconded by Conference co–chairman Ben Villalon. When asked about how the pepper growing industry in Texas was doing, he replied, "Not very well. The economics are against the crop. The return per pound is about what it was thirty years ago. Back then the hourly wage was sixty cents an hour; it is now more than $5 an hour, but you get the same harvest per man. Which leads to an increasing demand for the use of mechanical harvesters."

According to Villalon, there was a time when the U. S. had superior technology that is now practiced world wide. Chile production is moving south primarily because of cheap labor. "Right now peppers from south of the border are flooding the market, driving prices down because the volume is out pacing the demand," he said. "The big processors are contracting for fields in Mexico with the result that prices are expected to stay low. We may be able to improve our varieties and better utilize mechanical harvesters, but then so can our competition," he said.

Octavio Pozo Campodnico, the Dean of a Mexican Pepper Breeding Program.

A somewhat different view was presented by Octavio Pozo Campodonico, the dean of pepper breeding programs at the National Institute for Agriculture in Tampico, Mexico. "What Americans tend to forget is that everything in Mexico is more expensive except for labor. We have to pay more for farm equipment, trucks, fuel, seed, fertilizer and other chemicals than you do in the U.S. because they have to be imported," he said.

For many years Mexico's chile crop was grown primarily for local consumption. But with increasing demand, many U. S. processors began contracting for peppers, mostly jalapeño, from farmers in Tamaulipas state. Eventually demand came for cayenne and Tabasco peppers. In the last few year farmers in Chihuahua have started growing chile for both the fresh market in the U. S., and for processors in the Deming/El Paso areas.

"There is no doubt," said Campodonico, "that the Mexican farmers are becoming more market oriented. Still there are problems. When we sell our produce in Mexico, we get paid in a few days. It takes sixty to ninety days to get paid by U.S. buyers and the brokers take a big cut."

Many U. S. producers want to establish plants in Mexico. Japan is a developing market for dehydrated chile, but the troubled Asian economy has slowed down demand. Seed for chiles grown in northern Mexico comes from the U. S.; that grown in southern Mexico comes from the native plants (in Mexico 80 percent of the varieties are native) and from Mexican seed companies. Eighty percent of the jalapeños are canned, 15 percent are exported, and 5 percent are for the fresh market. Even with NAFTA, USDA regulations and inspections limit export. Almost all of the bell peppers are exported.

What does Campodonico see for the future? "All varieties of hot peppers will increase in popularity. People will demand hot sauce on just about everything––pizza, spaghetti, meat and poultry––you name it. The next hot food craze in the U. S. will be mole," he predicted. "Mole is uniquely Mexican, but the mixture of chocolate and chile will become an international favorite in the next few years. People the world over are looking for new exotic foods and mole will meet that desire for a new taste sensation," he said.

El Nino Hits Parts of California Hard

One of the worst years for weather in California's lower Salinas Valley was 1998, according to Paul Nasrewski of Gilroy Foods in King City. "We were three weeks late in planting. It was like planting in a tar pit––then the fields turned to cement," he said. The average yield of dry pods per acre will be less than 6,500 pounds, while normal yield is more than 7,000 pounds."

Frank Garcia, Jr. of GNS Spices, Inc. of Walnut, California, had a very different experience this year. "The weather in the Oxnard area was excellent," he said. "Our Red Savina habanero crop was excellent, as were the crops of several contract growers in Arizona." Good crops were also reported in New Mexico, Texas and northern Chihuahua, Mexico.

Sweden, Europe's Hot Spot

Sweden has the highest per capita consumption of chile in Europe, followed closely by Norway. According to Raimo Orava of Nordfalks AB, Sweden's largest spice and hot food producer, "This has meant an annual growth rate of 25 percent in sales for the past three years." Not bad for a company that has to import all of the ingredients for its Santa Maria brand of spicy foods.

"Nordfalks has been a spice dealer for many years, about the fourth largest in Europe," said Orava. "After a visit to the U. S. Southwest, we started importing Tex–Mex foods to check the market. It was so successful that we decided to produce our own brand, Santa Maria, which includes everything from hot sauce and salsa to tacos and wraps (tortillas)."

Although Swedes have always liked hot foods made with curry and paprika, Nordfalks had to develop a whole new customer base for their Tex–Mex product lines. "We tried several ploys, including going to the top chefs of the best restaurants and having them develop recipes that suit Swedish tastes. We have our products in upscale grocery stores and advertise heavily for a mail-order business." he said.

They export to Austria, Norway and Holland. "It's funny, said Raimo, "Denmark and Finland aren't interested in hot foods at all. But we are continuing to market our original spice line and it is doing well in many countries." Nordfalks also buys spices internationally.

South African Company Markets to Entire Continent

Chiles have been raised in southern Africa for centuries. Even today cooks making boiling pots of stew on wood fires use small hot peppers to add taste to otherwise bland food. The John Bartlett Company of Bellville, South Africa is in the business of extracting oleoresins from as many as sixteen different spices. "These spices," said Managing Director John Bartlett, "are used to make curries which are very popular in southern Africa. I suppose they were first brought to the continent by emigrants from India. Today, spicy foods are a major part of the foods of many African nations."

Bartlett was visiting the U. S. looking for new processes and equipment to extract spices from the host plants. But he took the opportunity to attend the National Pepper Conference to meet industry leaders, growers and scientists. "We obtain most of our chiles and other spices from growers in many countries in southern Africa. There has been political unrest in the area for years, but the spice trade is flourishing," he said.

Opportunities in Holland

Holland is developing a spicy food industry, but still has a long way to go, according to Peter Van Duin, a plant breeder with Rijk Zwaan of DeLier, Holland. "We currently produce more than 1000 hectares of bell peppers, and export them to all parts of Europe and even to the Far East. "We do not raise hot chile in Holland," said Peter. "We import most of our hot peppers from Spain. Many of our top supermarkets are carrying chile in addition to taco shells, tortillas and hot sauce. I feel that there is an excellent opportunity to increase the export of hot foods of all kinds to Holland and to the rest of Europe."

1998 Conference Chairman Ben Villalon, right, passed Conference Chairmanship to Dr. Carl Mostenbacher of Loisiana State University.

A Short List of Other News from the 1998 National Pepper Conference Proceedings

• The National Pepper Conference has been held biannually since 1973. Totally a volunteer effort, the organization has 2,000 members but no office. In fact, according to its own publication, "The organization continues successfully without officers, structure, dues, etc. Interest in Capsicum improvement and diversity continues as the demand for better peppers increases annually."
  
  
• The U.S. Vegetable Laboratory of the USDA reported that genetic analysis of the southern root-knot nematode resistance in various Caribbean varieties of C. chinense indicated that their lines PA-353, PA-398, and PA-426 had sufficient resistance. They anticipate that breeding for even more resistant lines "should be attained easily by the application of conventional plant breeding methodologies."
  
  
• Russian scientists determined that the use of clear or black plastic mulch increases the height of sweet pepper plants by 6 to 25 percent and that clear plastic mulch works best because it not only warms the soil, it reflects light back onto the plants.
  
  
• Researchers at the George Washington Carver Agricultural Experiment Station at Tuskegee University in Alabama grew Scotch bonnets (a Jamaican variety of C. chinense) using five different kinds of mulch: black plastic, hay, black paper, bare soil-hoe check, and bare soil. The best mulch turned out to be hay, with a yield of 4491 kilograms per hectare. Black plastic was next with 2241 kg./ha.
  
  
• Recent evaluations of hot pepper trials in the Lower Sacramento Valley of California by Mike Murray of the Colusa Cooperative Extension office indicated that both jalapeños and habaneros have a chance of becoming major crops in the region. The 'SXP 4515' variety of jalapeño from Sunseeds yielded 22.9 tons per acre while the 'Mitla' from Petoseed yielded 38.4 tons per acre. Habaneros averaged 12 tons per acre.
  
  
• It is legend among amateur chile growers that habaneros and their kin thrive best in environments with at least some shading. Because dense plantings of chiles provide partial shade conditions at the plants' mature heights while the pods are developing, the hobbyists tended to crowd them in. At Louisiana State University, the effect of in-row spacing in habanero plants was studied, and the results supported the amateurs. Two varieties, 'Orange Habanero' and 'Red Savina' were planted at seven in-row spacings of 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4 feet. No matter how far apart they were planted, the width of the plants was unaffected. However, there were other significant factors. The highest plants were the ones planted closely together at one foot apart. The 1.5 spacing resulted in the highest early and total yield, while the 3 foot spacing had the highest number of fruits per plant.

Organic Farmer Dennis Smederovac in his greenhouse.

Albert Bustamonte is one of very few organic chile farmers.

Top of Page