From a continental perspective, suppliers in Europe exported the highest dollar worth of peppers during 2019 with shipments valued at $2.9 billion or roughly half (49.9%) of the overall total. In second place was North America at 35.6% while 10.4% of worldwide shipments of peppers originated from Asian exporters. Smaller percentages came from Africa (2.7%), Latin America (1.1%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.2%) 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 2019.
- Mexico: US$1.4 billion (23.6% of total exported peppers)
- Spain: $1.3 billion (23.2%)
- Netherlands: $1.1 billion (19.1%)
- Canada: $439.3 million (7.6%)
- United States: $252.9 million (4.4%)
- Morocco: $132.8 million (2.3%)
- Turkey: $124.5 million (2.2%)
- China: $97.3 million (1.7%)
- Israel: $93.8 million (1.6%)
- South Korea: $93.3 million (1.6%)
- Vietnam: $73.3 million (1.3%)
- France: $64.9 million (1.1%)
- Belgium: $61.8 million (1.1%)
- Austria: $51.8 million (0.9%)
- Germany: $38.5 million (0.7%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 92.3% of global peppers exported in 2019.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing exporters of peppers since 2015 were: Morocco (up 81.3%), Vietnam (up 73.9%), Turkey (up 60%) and Mexico (up 55.3%).
Three major suppliers posted declines in their international sales of peppers: Israel (down -32.3%), Belgium (down -22.6%) and France (down -6.7%).
Advantages
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports for peppers during 2019. 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$1.4 billion (net export surplus up 55.4% since 2015)
- Spain: $1.3 billion (up 36.7%)
- Netherlands: $919.2 million (up 16.7%)
- Canada: $152.8 million (up 56.4%)
- Morocco: $132.8 million (up 81.4%)
- Turkey: $124.5 million (up 60.0%)
- South Korea: $93.3 million (up 7.7%)
- Israel: $91.6 million (down -33.6%)
- Vietnam: $65.6 million (up 55.7%)
- China: $41.4 million (down -44.7%)
- India: $35.4 million (up 17.1%)
- Dominican Republic: $22.3 million (up 126.6%)
- Honduras: $22.2 million (down -10.3%)
- Greece: $16.7 million (down -18.1%)
- North Macedonia: $16.3 million (up 22.4%)
Mexico achieved the highest surplus in the international trade of 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 2019. 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$1.5 billion (net export deficit up 39.2% since 2015)
- Germany: -$761.6 million (up 0.1%)
- United Kingdom: -$456.6 million (up 11.9%)
- Russia: -$198 million (up 58.9%)
- France: -$187.6 million (up 0.8%)
- Japan: -$128.7 million (down -2.5%)
- Poland: -$112.7 million (up 41.3%)
- Italy: -$99.4 million (up 17.8%)
- Switzerland: -$79.3 million (up 9.6%)
- Sweden: -$67.5 million (down -4.2%)
- Czech Republic: -$66.5 million (up 13.8%)
- Austria: -$63.9 million (up 17.3%)
- Romania: -$60.6 million (up 94.1%)
- Norway: -$59.1 million (up 7.2%)
- Denmark: -$50.9 million (up 15.5%)
The United States of America incurred the highest deficit in the international trade of peppers. In turn, this negative cashflow highlights America’s strong competitive disadvantage for this specific product category but also signals opportunities for peppers-supplying countries that help satisfy the powerful demand.
Companies
Peppers Exporting Companies
According to global trading platform Alibaba, the following companies are also examples of companies that trade sweet and/or chili peppers including seeds. The home-country location is shown within parentheses.
- Alfafood GmbH (Germany)
- American Top Foods LLC (United States)
- Boumamar Trading (Netherlands)
- Cannery Row SL (Spain)
- Henan Alchemy Food Co, Ltd (China)
- Mave Enterprises Inc (United States)
- Shanxi Qinghe Trading Co, Ltd (China)
- TMEM (France)
- Vast Exporters (India)
- Viet Star Import Export Company Limited (Vietnam)
Searchable List of Sweet/Chili Pepper Exporting Countries in 2019
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of the columns. An entry of 0% in the right-most column means that 2018 data was unavailable.
| Rank | Exporter | Exported Sweet Peppers (US$) | 2018-9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mexico | $1,365,514,000 | +13.8% |
| 2. | Spain | $1,341,992,000 | +10% |
| 3. | Netherlands | $1,106,581,000 | +2.7% |
| 4. | Canada | $439,285,000 | +13.2% |
| 5. | United States | $252,885,000 | +4.2% |
| 6. | Morocco | $132,845,000 | -12.1% |
| 7. | Turkey | $124,544,000 | +5.6% |
| 8. | China | $97,327,000 | +26.2% |
| 9. | Israel | $93,826,000 | -34.1% |
| 10. | South Korea | $93,320,000 | -0.5% |
| 11. | Vietnam | $73,328,000 | -16.2% |
| 12. | France | $64,893,000 | -5.7% |
| 13. | Belgium | $61,779,000 | -4.3% |
| 14. | Austria | $51,767,000 | +15.3% |
| 15. | Germany | $38,458,000 | -10.7% |
| 16. | India | $35,372,000 | +6.8% |
| 17. | Poland | $30,930,000 | +27.8% |
| 18. | Hungary | $30,035,000 | +5.8% |
| 19. | Italy | $26,977,000 | -0.2% |
| 20. | Greece | $25,939,000 | -16.2% |
| 21. | Honduras | $22,393,000 | +13% |
| 22. | Dominican Republic | $22,291,000 | +27.3% |
| 23. | Slovenia | $20,400,000 | -33.8% |
| 24. | North Macedonia | $17,164,000 | +40.4% |
| 25. | Iran | $14,567,000 | -63.9% |
| 26. | Thailand | $14,421,000 | -13.1% |
| 27. | Guatemala | $14,188,000 | +3.8% |
| 28. | New Zealand | $12,969,000 | -9% |
| 29. | Jordan | $10,661,000 | -77.9% |
| 30. | Czech Republic | $10,361,000 | +7.1% |
| 31. | Albania | $9,166,000 | +23.8% |
| 32. | Myanmar (Burma) | $8,573,000 | +1,521% |
| 33. | Cambodia | $8,462,000 | +243.8% |
| 34. | United Kingdom | $7,799,000 | -32.1% |
| 35. | Malaysia | $7,704,000 | +7.6% |
| 36. | Lithuania | $7,614,000 | -13.1% |
| 37. | Bulgaria | $6,945,000 | +23.1% |
| 38. | Serbia | $6,893,000 | -3% |
| 39. | Uzbekistan | $5,569,000 | +7.9% |
| 40. | Egypt | $5,510,000 | +23.9% |
| 41. | Uganda | $4,722,000 | 0% |
| 42. | Portugal | $3,689,000 | -13.8% |
| 43. | South Africa | $3,273,000 | +16.9% |
| 44. | Kenya | $3,093,000 | +348.9% |
| 45. | Bangladesh | $2,880,000 | -45.4% |
| 46. | Denmark | $2,808,000 | -17.9% |
| 47. | Latvia | $2,756,000 | +21.9% |
| 48. | Slovakia | $2,611,000 | +199.4% |
| 49. | El Salvador | $2,257,000 | -9.3% |
| 50. | Senegal | $2,202,000 | +5.6% |
| 51. | Kazakhstan | $2,087,000 | +131.1% |
| 52. | Peru | $1,852,000 | -14.2% |
| 53. | Kyrgyzstan | $1,686,000 | +401.8% |
| 54. | Saudi Arabia | $1,665,000 | +52.8% |
| 55. | Laos | $1,662,000 | +27.3% |
| 56. | Russia | $1,622,000 | +18.9% |
| 57. | Pakistan | $1,555,000 | +647.6% |
| 58. | Rwanda | $1,549,000 | +4,203% |
| 59. | Ireland | $1,297,000 | -1.7% |
| 60. | Australia | $1,142,000 | +13.2% |
| 61. | Tunisia | $1,087,000 | -44.3% |
| 62. | Gambia | $1,050,000 | +20,900% |
| 63. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $1,010,000 | +27.7% |
| 64. | Brazil | $983,000 | +551% |
| 65. | Croatia | $858,000 | -1.5% |
| 66. | Oman | $823,000 | -51.3% |
| 67. | Singapore | $770,000 | +58.8% |
| 68. | Belarus | $692,000 | -84.9% |
| 69. | Luxembourg | $592,000 | +14.5% |
| 70. | Sweden | $546,000 | -41% |
| 71. | Tanzania | $508,000 | +94.6% |
| 72. | Romania | $456,000 | +137.5% |
| 73. | Jamaica | $408,000 | -10.9% |
| 74. | Taiwan | $376,000 | +104.3% |
| 75. | Cuba | $333,000 | +120.5% |
| 76. | Turkmenistan | $317,000 | +136.6% |
| 77. | Syria | $308,000 | -42.3% |
| 78. | Armenia | $286,000 | +565.1% |
| 79. | Finland | $269,000 | +21.7% |
| 80. | Trinidad/Tobago | $238,000 | -30.6% |
| 81. | Indonesia | $237,000 | -38.8% |
| 82. | Sri Lanka | $218,000 | -84% |
| 83. | Madagascar | $160,000 | +11.1% |
| 84. | Ukraine | $154,000 | -57.8% |
| 85. | Suriname | $135,000 | +2,600% |
| 86. | Georgia | $123,000 | -4.7% |
| 87. | Zimbabwe | $88,000 | +49.2% |
| 88. | Fiji | $75,000 | -65.9% |
| 89. | Ghana | $74,000 | -36.8% |
| 90. | Argentina | $71,000 | +787.5% |
| 91. | Colombia | $69,000 | -61.2% |
| 92. | Mauritania | $66,000 | 0% |
| 93. | Estonia | $57,000 | +9.6% |
| 94. | Ecuador | $48,000 | +33.3% |
| 95. | Philippines | $46,000 | -88.6% |
| 96. | Lebanon | $37,000 | -64.8% |
| 97. | Ethiopia | $34,000 | -2.9% |
| 98. | United Arab Emirates | $30,000 | -99.7% |
| 99. | Japan | $29,000 | +107.1% |
| 100. | Moldova | $25,000 | +4.2% |
| 101. | Switzerland | $22,000 | -54.2% |
| 102. | Azerbaijan | $21,000 | +110% |
| 103. | Venezuela | $21,000 | -74.4% |
| 104. | Nicaragua | $19,000 | -98.5% |
| 105. | Guinea-Bissau | $17,000 | +41.7% |
| 106. | Norway | $16,000 | -54.3% |
| 107. | Eswatini | $14,000 | -30% |
| 108. | Palestine | $13,000 | -99.7% |
| 109. | Algeria | $10,000 | -56.5% |
| 110. | Bolivia | $10,000 | +233.3% |
| 111. | Chile | $8,000 | -46.7% |
| 112. | Timor-Leste | $8,000 | -57.9% |
| 113. | Uruguay | $7,000 | -30% |
| 114. | Montenegro | $6,000 | -80.6% |
| 115. | Saint Lucia | $5,000 | +25% |
| 116. | Costa Rica | $5,000 | -28.6% |
| 117. | Benin | $5,000 | 0% |
| 118. | Guyana | $4,000 | -89.5% |
| 119. | Iceland | $4,000 | -33.3% |
| 120. | Mozambique | $4,000 | +300% |
| 121. | Mauritius | $3,000 | 0% |
| 122. | Panama | $3,000 | -99.4% |
| 123. | Mali | $3,000 | -83.3% |
| 124. | Dominica | $3,000 | -99.7% |
| 125. | Cyprus | $3,000 | -83.3% |
| 126. | Cameroon | $2,000 | +100% |
| 127. | Antigua/Barbuda | $2,000 | 0% |
| 128. | Hong Kong | $2,000 | -60% |
| 129. | Tajikistan | $2,000 | -91.3% |
| 130. | Togo | $2,000 | +100% |
| 131. | Ivory Coast | $1,000 | -97.2% |
| 132. | Gabon | $1,000 | 0% |
| 133. | Bermuda | $1,000 | 0% |
| 134. | Democr. Rep. Congo | $1,000 | 0% |
See also Tomatoes Exports by Country, Potatoes Exports by Country and Corn Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Alibaba, supplier information for peppers. Accessed on May 25, 2020
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on May 25, 2020
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on May 25, 2020
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on May 25, 2020
Wikipedia, Bell Pepper. Accessed on May 25, 2020
Wikipedia, Chili Pepper. Accessed on May 25, 2020
