Poland: growing production of sweet pepper

Warsaw - Sweet pepper is a relatively new vegetable crop for Polish growers, because first plantations appeared about 25 years ago, when one of the farmers brought pepper seeds from the Netherlands and tried to grow it. Since than, sweet pepper became important in vegetable production, specially in one region of Poland, around the city of Radom. Most of the plants are grown in unheated plastic tunnels (with a wooden construction), and some – even in the open field.

Nowadays, almost half of the peppers sold in Poland comes from the mentioned region, where the total acreage of pepper production is estimated at 1000 hectares (more than 23 thousand individual tunnels) and a total annual crop of 70 thousand MT. These numbers make Radom region not only the largest „pepper region” in Poland but probably amongst the largest in all of Europe. Almost all of sweet pepper plantations are drip irrigated. Initial investments are estimated at about 4 thousand €, but returns during last years are lower than before, because of growing import.

Most of Polish peppers labeled as Extra Class are sold to export companies (Polish sweet pepper is exported to Germany, United Kingdom, Finland and East European countries). The rest is destined for the domestic market and processing plants (for freezing or marinating). According to growers, the costs of pepper production account to 0,60-0,70 €/kg.

Source:freshplaza.com