A relative newcomer, mini sweet peppers have a huge following.
Prime Time International, Coachella, Calif., launched its mini sweet peppers about five years ago, says Mike Aiton, director of marketing. The company has increased its acreage every year since the program began.
“The year-on-year growth has been amazing,” he says. “It's a huge item for us.”
Los Angeles-based World Variety Produce Inc. has carried Melissa's brand Veggie Sweet mini peppers for about eight years, says Robert Schueller, director of public relations.
“It has been one of Melissa's top specialty items in the vegetable category since the first year it was introduced to produce departments nationally,” he says.
And sales continue to grow. Over the past year alone, sales have increased 11% on conventional varieties and 15% on the organic side, he says.
Gilroy, Calif.-based Uesugi Farms has long been known for its bell pepper program, but owner and general manager Pete Aiello says he started receiving requests from customers for mini sweet peppers a couple of years ago.
The grower planted its first crop in 2015, marked its first year in the deal in November and plans to increase acreage.
“There's definitely demand for the product,” Aiello says. “It seems to get stronger as time goes by.”
Similarly, sales have risen steadily since Oxford, N.C.-based Bailey Farms started offering mini sweet peppers in 2009, says Randy Bailey, owner, president and co-founder. The company now is looking for more land to grow on in southern Florida.
“Specialty peppers are more important than they were 10 years ago,” he says.
Consumers crave them because of their snackability and sweetness as well as their health benefits, he says.
A serving contains only 25 calories, has no fat or cholesterol and contains 270% of the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C and 35% of the daily dose of vitamin A.
Hard to grow
As popular and as tasty as they may be, mini sweet peppers are not always easy to grow or harvest. It took some time for Useugi Farms to figure out the maturity cycle of the mini peppers, Aiello says. “Now we have almost a full year with (mini sweet peppers), and we feel that we have it pretty well dialed in.”
The biggest challenge at Useugi Farms is the harvesting process.
“Growing certainly is not a problem — we know how to make a crop,” he says.
“But we're still getting the intricacies of harvest down.”
The company shoots for an even blend of three colors that have different cycles of maturity and different yield patterns, Aiello says.
“Some colors might yield more than others,” he says. “It becomes a challenge to get the proper mix of all three colors in the bag,”
Also, mini sweet peppers can over ripen very rapidly.
“You have to pick them a little bit on the immature side so that they'll have some staying power on a grocery store shelf,” he says.
Because of their small size, picking mini sweet peppers is more time consuming and expensive than picking bell peppers.
“It's a value-added, consumer-ready product, so you have to be really diligent with your grading and your sizing,” Aiello says. “It basically needs to look like a bag of diamonds.
“It's the pepper that's in most demand and the hardest to grow,” Bailey says. “It's a very volatile item.”
The plant has little disease resistance, but researchers are working diligently to develop a strain with a stronger genetic makeup, he says.
Some genetic improvements already have been made, but more are coming, he says.
Bailey estimates that the industry is about four years away from achieving much better genetics.
The challenge at Prime Time International is getting all three colors — red, yellow and orange — to come to harvest at the same time, Aiton says. The trick is to pick the right varieties and stagger the planting, he says. Each color is in its own section of the field and is harvested individually. The peppers are sorted and graded by hand in the packinghouse and then bagged by a machine.
Worth the effort
The appealing taste is worth the extra effort it takes to produce them. While bell peppers often are used as a flavoring agent in cooking, mini sweet peppers can be eaten as a standalone snack.
“Just open the bag and chow down,” he says. “They're very sweet.” Mini sweet peppers are bright, colorful and make a nice presentation in the bags, he adds. “They're very eye-catching.”
Aiton agrees. The color is the kicker, he says.
“You have a bag that has three vibrant colors in it,” he says. “It adds pizazz — to say nothing of flavor — to any dish.”
They also have a long shelf life — up to a couple of weeks — he says.
“We get e-mail and Facebook posts about how much kids love them,” Aiton says, adding that they're ideal for kids' lunchboxes or as an after-school snack.
And they're a great value, he says, since three regular hothouse bell peppers can cost $12-13.
Bailey enjoys mini sweet peppers stuffed with cheese and sausage. The company posts that and other recipes on its website — baileyfarmsinc.com. “(They're) great for football parties,” he adds.
In the bag
Pouch bags seem to be the package of choice for mini sweet peppers. Uesugi Farms ships them in 1-pound bags with a flat bottom and zipper top, Aiello says.
But the company — and retailers — have to charge more for mini sweet peppers than regular peppers because of the value-added package and the increased cost of harvest.
The good news is that consumers are willing to pay the premium, and mini sweet peppers probably are more profitable for retailers, he says.
“I don't see this as a loss leader,” Aiello says. “Retailers certainly aren't giving it away.”
Prime Time International also sells mini sweet peppers in 1- and 2-pound pouch bags, Aiton says.
Bailey Farms offers a variety of packaging options, including a 1-pound gusset bag introduced
in 2010.
If you're convinced that mini sweet peppers are a hot item, but you're concerned that they'll cannibalize your bell pepper category – not to worry, grower-shippers say.
“I don't see any cannibalizing happening,” Aiello says. “Our volume on bell peppers continues to increase. We have no problem moving the volume that we have.”
Aiton doesn't see cannibalization, either.
“We look at them as extra business,” he says.