From 2019 to 2020, global sales of sweet or chili peppers appreciated by 7.7%.
The 5 biggest exporters of sweet or chili peppers are Mexico, Spain, Netherlands, Canada and the United States. Collectively, that cohort of supplying nations generated 78.3% of total sweet or chili peppers exported during 2020. This indicates a relatively concentrated global marketplace.
From a continental perspective, exporters in Europe shipped the highest dollar worth of peppers during 2020 with shipments valued at $2.9 billion or almost half (48.4%) of the overall total. In second place was North America at 36.6% while 10.9% of worldwide shipments of peppers originated from Asian exporters.
Tinier percentages came from Africa (2.6%), Latin America (1.1%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.3%) led by New Zealand.
For research purposes, the 6-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 070960 for fresh or chilled peppers. That code prefix encompasses both sweet peppers and chili peppers.
Peppers Exports by Country
Countries
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of peppers during 2020.
- Mexico: US$1.5 billion (23.9% of total exported peppers)
- Spain: $1.4 billion (22.8%)
- Netherlands: $1.1 billion (18.8%)
- Canada: $504.5 million (8.3%)
- United States: $267 million (4.4%)
- Turkey: $156.3 million (2.6%)
- Morocco: $143.5 million (2.4%)
- China: $117.6 million (1.9%)
- South Korea: $89.2 million (1.5%)
- Israel: $82.2 million (1.4%)
- France: $72.5 million (1.2%)
- Belgium: $69.5 million (1.1%)
- India: $54.8 million (0.9%)
- Vietnam: $53.5 million (0.9%)
- Germany: $38.7 million (0.6%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 92.7% of global sweet or chili peppers exported in 2020.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing exporters of peppers since 2019 were: India (up 52.8%), Turkey (up 25.1%), China (up 20.8%) and Belgium (up 20.3%).
A trio of top countries posted declines in their international sales of peppers, namely Israel (down -12.4%), South Korea (down -4.4%) and Germany (down -1.9%).
Advantages
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports for sweet or chili peppers during 2020. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus between the value of each country’s exported peppers and its import purchases for that same commodity.
- Mexico: US$1.5 billion (net export surplus up 9.4% since 2019)
- Spain: $1.3 billion (up 5.6%)
- Netherlands: $944.8 million (up 4.9%)
- Canada: $213.3 million (up 39.6%)
- Turkey: $155.9 million (up 25.3%)
- Morocco: $143.4 million (up 3.9%)
- South Korea: $89.2 million (down -4.4%)
- Israel: $80.7 million (down -11.9%)
- China: $72.8 million (up 75.8%)
- India: $54.8 million (up 52.9%)
- Vietnam: $52.6 million (up 11.4%)
- Jordan: $35.6 million (down -25%)
- Honduras: $26.4 million (up 140.7%)
- Dominican Republic: $25.3 million (up 31.5%)
- Greece: $20.9 million (up 25.4%)
Mexico achieved the highest surplus in the international trade of sweet or chili peppers. In turn, this positive cashflow confirms strong Mexican competitive advantage for this specific product category.
Opportunities
The following countries posted the highest negative net exports for peppers during 2020. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the deficit between the value of each country’s imported peppers purchases and its exports for that same commodity.
- United States: -US$1.6 billion (net export deficit up 5.7% since 2019)
- Germany: -$902.7 million (up 16.6%)
- United Kingdom: -$509.7 million (up 11.9%)
- France: -$220 million (up 17.2%)
- Russia: -$173.9 million (down -12.2%)
- Japan: -$124.5 million (down -3.2%)
- Poland: -$114.5 million (up 1.6%)
- Switzerland: -$96.4 million (up 21.7%)
- Italy: -$95.6 million (down -10.4%)
- Sweden: -$77.1 million (up 13.8%)
- Czech Republic: -$75.9 million (up 14.1%)
- Romania: -$64.8 million (up 8.1%)
- Norway: -$64 million (up 8.2%)
- Austria: -$63.7 million (up 4.4%)
- Denmark: -$56.3 million (up 8.7%)
The United States of America incurred the highest deficit in the international trade of peppers. In turn, this negative cashflow highlights America’s strong competitive disadvantage for this specific product category but also signals opportunities for peppers-supplying countries that help satisfy the powerful demand.
Companies
Peppers Exporting Companies
According to global trading platform Alibaba, the following companies are also examples of companies that trade sweet and/or chili peppers including seeds. The home-country location is shown within parentheses.
- Alfafood GmbH (Germany)
- American Top Foods LLC (United States)
- Boumamar Trading (Netherlands)
- Cannery Row SL (Spain)
- Henan Alchemy Food Co, Ltd (China)
- Mave Enterprises Inc (United States)
- Shanxi Qinghe Trading Co, Ltd (China)
- TMEM (France)
- Vast Exporters (India)
- Viet Star Import Export Company Limited (Vietnam)
Searchable List of Sweet/Chili Pepper Exporting Countries in 2020
The following 100 key exporters of sweet or chili peppers accounted for 99.997% of all shipments of those commodities by value during 2020.
| Rank | Exporter | Exported Peppers (US$) | 2019-20 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mexico | $1,452,567,000 | +9.4% |
| 2. | Spain | $1,388,517,000 | +5.3% |
| 3. | Netherlands | $1,144,497,000 | +5.8% |
| 4. | Canada | $504,461,000 | +14.8% |
| 5. | United States | $267,035,000 | +5.6% |
| 6. | Turkey | $156,289,000 | +25.1% |
| 7. | Morocco | $143,476,000 | +3.9% |
| 8. | China | $117,560,000 | +20.8% |
| 9. | South Korea | $89,178,000 | -4.4% |
| 10. | Israel | $82,164,000 | -12.4% |
| 11. | France | $72,467,000 | +11.7% |
| 12. | Belgium | $69,537,000 | +20.3% |
| 13. | India | $54,773,000 | +52.8% |
| 14. | Vietnam | $53,495,000 | +11.4% |
| 15. | Germany | $38,669,000 | -1.9% |
| 16. | Jordan | $35,646,000 | -24.9% |
| 17. | Poland | $31,687,000 | +2.4% |
| 18. | Greece | $31,537,000 | +21.6% |
| 19. | Hungary | $29,532,000 | +2.1% |
| 20. | Italy | $28,010,000 | +0.2% |
| 21. | Honduras | $26,537,000 | +141.8% |
| 22. | Dominican Republic | $25,348,000 | +31% |
| 23. | Thailand | $20,864,000 | +44.7% |
| 24. | Myanmar | $19,744,000 | +50.1% |
| 25. | North Macedonia | $18,199,000 | +6% |
| 26. | New Zealand | $17,197,000 | +32.6% |
| 27. | Albania | $16,638,000 | +55.3% |
| 28. | Czech Republic | $10,946,000 | +5.6% |
| 29. | Austria | $10,903,000 | -24.3% |
| 30. | Guatemala | $10,723,000 | -24.4% |
| 31. | Bulgaria | $10,314,000 | +51% |
| 32. | Uzbekistan | $7,919,000 | +18.6% |
| 33. | Serbia | $6,637,000 | -3.7% |
| 34. | Malaysia | $6,526,000 | -15.3% |
| 35. | Lithuania | $6,364,000 | -16.6% |
| 36. | Iran | $6,068,000 | -66.5% |
| 37. | Egypt | $4,963,000 | +374% |
| 38. | United Kingdom | $3,527,000 | -55.1% |
| 39. | Latvia | $3,212,000 | +17.1% |
| 40. | Denmark | $3,170,000 | +12.8% |
| 41. | Slovenia | $2,890,000 | -41.7% |
| 42. | Rwanda | $2,887,000 | +1302% |
| 43. | Portugal | $2,760,000 | -25% |
| 44. | South Africa | $2,662,000 | -18.7% |
| 45. | Slovakia | $2,571,000 | -4.9% |
| 46. | El Salvador | $2,558,000 | +13.3% |
| 47. | Senegal | $2,420,000 | +9.9% |
| 48. | Saudi Arabia | $2,257,000 | +35.6% |
| 49. | Laos | $2,233,000 | +538% |
| 50. | Syrian Arab Republic | $2,168,000 | +249.1% |
| 51. | Croatia | $2,089,000 | +148.4% |
| 52. | Russia | $2,060,000 | +27% |
| 53. | Tunisia | $1,767,000 | +107.6% |
| 54. | Kenya | $1,663,000 | +119.4% |
| 55. | Peru | $1,593,000 | -14% |
| 56. | Australia | $1,573,000 | +37.7% |
| 57. | Oman | $1,172,000 | -47.2% |
| 58. | Armenia | $1,060,000 | +270.6% |
| 59. | Pakistan | $1,029,000 | +519.9% |
| 60. | Ireland | $1,026,000 | -21.4% |
| 61. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $888,000 | -12.1% |
| 62. | Kazakhstan | $781,000 | -62.6% |
| 63. | Sweden | $720,000 | +31.6% |
| 64. | Indonesia | $670,000 | +112% |
| 65. | Singapore | $618,000 | -19.7% |
| 66. | Nicaragua | $596,000 | +10.8% |
| 67. | Jamaica | $550,000 | -23.8% |
| 68. | Luxembourg | $541,000 | -5.6% |
| 69. | Brazil | $489,000 | -50.3% |
| 70. | Belarus | $440,000 | -39.1% |
| 71. | Taiwan | $436,000 | +16% |
| 72. | Niger | $395,000 | +29.1% |
| 73. | Romania | $393,000 | -12.5% |
| 74. | Suriname | $380,000 | 0% |
| 75. | Bangladesh | $377,000 | -92.4% |
| 76. | Tanzania | $345,000 | -8% |
| 77. | Cuba | $339,000 | +2.1% |
| 78. | Kyrgyzstan | $272,000 | -83.9% |
| 79. | Trinidad/Tobago | $231,000 | -3.3% |
| 80. | Lebanon | $225,000 | +132% |
| 81. | Finland | $224,000 | -16.7% |
| 82. | Azerbaijan | $220,000 | +947.6% |
| 83. | Argentina | $196,000 | +176.1% |
| 84. | Sri Lanka | $179,000 | -10.9% |
| 85. | Ukraine | $178,000 | -2.7% |
| 86. | Afghanistan | $152,000 | 0% |
| 87. | Colombia | $138,000 | -26.2% |
| 88. | Georgia | $125,000 | +197.6% |
| 89. | United Arab Emirates | $107,000 | -99% |
| 90. | Madagascar | $102,000 | -36.3% |
| 91. | Fiji | $79,000 | -60.5% |
| 92. | Zimbabwe | $72,000 | -18.2% |
| 93. | Estonia | $56,000 | -5.1% |
| 94. | Ghana | $51,000 | 0% |
| 95. | Switzerland | $38,000 | +72.7% |
| 96. | Palestine | $31,000 | -0.97 |
| 97. | Japan | $30,000 | +3.4% |
| 98. | Costa Rica | $27,000 | +440% |
| 99. | Uganda | $23,000 | -8% |
| 100. | Cambodia | $21,000 | +40% |
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of the columns. An entry of 0% in the right-most column means that 2019 data was unavailable.
See also Top Exported Spices by Sales, Weight and Unit Value, Tomatoes Exports by Country, Potatoes Exports by Country and Corn Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Alibaba, supplier information for peppers. Accessed on August 2, 2021
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on August 2, 2021
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 2, 2021
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on August 2, 2021
Wikipedia, Bell Pepper. Accessed on August 2, 2021
Wikipedia, Chili Pepper. Accessed on August 2, 2021
