Scientists on Quest to Turn Heat up on the Hot Pepper Market
New hot pepper agronomic practices and technologies could help rejuvenate the U.S. market and help reduce production costs for producers. Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist Kevin Crosby is leading a team to make this happen.
The team has received a $450,000 grant from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service Specialty Crops Multi-State Program (USDA-AMS-SCMP) to develop novel solutions.
Implementing these solutions could help reverse a downward trend the U.S. hot pepper market has experienced in recent years due to foreign competition and concerns about production costs and food safety.
The hot pepper market is volatile, Crosby says. Environmental stressors can have major effects on yield, and Mexico’s ability to supply year-round with low labor costs has caused a dependency on imports.
“When the cost of peppers is good, producers love to grow them. When it’s bad, they don’t. Harvesting is expensive, and producers can’t compete with Mexico’s prices,” he says.
Additionally, food safety continues to be a concern, as peppers are susceptible to carrying and spreading potentially harmful pathogens.
“Produce grown in the U.S. could be unaffected by an outbreak, but bad press on imports or in international markets still affects public perception,” Crosby says.
These obstacles have made many U.S. producers apprehensive about growing peppers, despite ideal growing climates in the Southwest and a rise in interest from specialty and niche markets.
But with the support from the USDA-AMS-SCMP, researchers and economists are teaming up to create a solution.
To address producers’ apprehension, researchers are testing new growing techniques that could help pepper plants withstand extreme heat and changing climates in the Southwest.
They also are developing cultivars with unique traits that will be exclusive to U.S. producers. For instance, they’re studying potential for new habanero cultivars with different levels of spiciness and higher amounts of capsiate – a non-spicy, beneficial phytochemical.
For more, continue reading at Agrilifetoday.tamu.edu.
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