Almost all supermarkets and greengrocers in Europe are selling them now: pointed peppers. With their extra sweet taste, they are increasingly preferred to standard blocky peppers. In 1996, three pepper growers started experimenting with growing sweet pointed peppers. “They are a niche product with added value on the shelf,” says Michel Zuijderwijk, one of Sweetpoint’s growers. “The red pointed pepper is a favourite, but consumption of the yellow and orange varieties has also gone way up in recent years.”
First a bit of history. It all started with a survey of opportunities for expanding the pepper segment. “As pepper growers, we were curious to see if there was a market for a sweeter pepper with more flavour,” Michel says. “The results were clear and with that, the pointed pepper was born; a sweet pointed pepper with an exceptional taste, deliciously sweet and with few seeds.” Its introduction was a success, and the growers began a close collaboration. A cultivation company in Spain also came on board, which meant that customers could count on a year-round supply of sweet pointed peppers. In 2003, the four growers decided to join forces, and the SweetPoint growers association was formed.
Red, orange and yellow
Spread over six locations in the Netherlands, sweet pointed peppers are now grown on approximately 27 hectares of cultivation area at Growers United. Until last year, these were mainly red pointed peppers, but now that SweetPoint’s growers have increased production of orange and yellow versions, the supply is much more in line with market demand. Michel: “The consumer is increasingly looking for the sweet taste of the (Sweet Palermo) pointed pepper in all three colours. There are certainly still some hurdles to overcome to really expand this segment, though.”
Encouragement needed
The sweet pointed pepper could definitely use some encouragement, as you can read in the white paper recently published by Growers United. Forty-two percent of Dutch shoppers and 38 percent of shoppers in the UK say they don’t buy the product because they just don’t think of sweet pointed peppers. An active promotion policy and better visibility could be a solution to this. For example, prominent positioning on the shelf – just above blocky peppers – would be a smart move to boost sales of pointed peppers, as would more shelf space for the three-colour mix.
“So there’s still work to be done. And still plenty of motivation to get this beautiful product on every consumer’s plate!”
