Paprika producers prospering in Zimbabwe

Last year, Zimbabwe earned more than US$8 million from export of paprika (Capsicum annum). While commercial production is little more than ten years old in Zimbabwe, in that time the country has earned an international reputation both for the high quality of its product, and the environmentally sound conditions under which it is grown. There are now 350 growers producing more than 12,000 tonnes of the spice every year, roughly half of which is bought for use as a food colorant. But achieving the quality that has led to such significant export earnings has not been easy. Establishing and maintaining the standards required by the international market has required painstaking research, continuous extension and investment.

The Hy-Veld Seed Company is one of the organisations that have undertaken this work. A pioneer in paprika production in Zimbabwe, the company began growing the crop commercially twelve years ago. Based in the north west of Zimbabwe, it has arguably the best agro-laboratory in the country and the only ASTA (American Spice Trade Association) accredited facility in southern Africa. The company represents the interests of the paprika growers, and provides reliable information on everything paprika-related to farmers and other stakeholders. Successful paprika growing requires a high level of farmer expertise, and Hy-Veld employs ten agronomists who travel widely to conduct on-farm extension. Quality in paprika is measured on a scale of colour intensity, defined by the ASTA, and while growers are to be found in most parts of the country, those living in warmer areas tend to do best, with the highest yields and quality.

Paprika growing is labour intensive and requires a lot of inputs and equipment. About 200 labour days per hectare are needed for commercial cultivation, and equipment is needed for land preparation, irrigation, chemical application, and for drying the crop. All the equipment is available locally. The crop is a heavy user of fertilizers (phosphate, ammonium nitrate and potash), and production also involves high levels of chemical application. Costs for commercial production are estimated to be in the region of US$1,500 per hectare, not including fixed overheads.

According to Hy-Veld's Alan Grigor, paprika customers have shown considerable interest in the environmental aspects of crop production, such as right usage of chemicals, and packaging. Ensuring that the crop is not contaminated by chemical residues is a high priority; any significant contamination could seriously damage Zimbabwe's market standing (see also Quality - an added value). Hy-Veld works to ensure that growers observe recommended pre-harvest application intervals, which are based on the time required for chemicals to naturally degrade. For example, a popular fungicide, triadimenol, has a pre-harvest interval of between 45 and 60 days. As well as helping farmers to leave the correct intervals, Hy-Veld also monitors the types of chemicals being used, in order to weed out any banned substances, such as organo-chlorines.

Non-chemical management of pests and diseases is another crucial aspect of paprika production, and requires extremely close monitoring of planting dates and destruction of crop residues. A date is selected when all crop residues must be destroyed to prevent pest and disease build-up. Monitoring this process among the large-scale commercial producers is relatively straightforward, but is more difficult for the small-scale farmers. However the efforts of the agronomic advisory services in Zimbabwe have, up to now, been impressive, maintaining the country's status as one of the leading global suppliers, along with Spain, USA, Morocco, and Peru. And Alan Grigor believes that demand for the spice will continue to grow in richer countries, as it is increasingly favoured over artificial food colorants.

"People are becoming more and more aware of the potentially carcinogenic artificials", he says. "As the world is going green, more people are looking for food products on the supermarket shelf which have no artificial colouring".

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