If you are looking for a green chili pepper supplier, Turkey can load in every month of the year, because most of the crop is grown under cover. For an importer, the real question is not whether the product is available. It is whether it arrives every week at the same length, the same heat and the same freshness. Hatipoğlu Tarım is a pepper exporter based in Antalya; it prepares green chili in its own facilities and loads it all year round. This guide is written for wholesalers and retail chain buyers who want to import green chili from Turkey. It covers the product, the supply calendar, the quality criteria, transport conditions, the HS code and what we need from you to quote.
What Turkish green chili is
Green chili pepper from Turkey is a long, bright green pepper with clear, noticeable heat. It is eaten fresh, grilled and pickled; it is the pepper served alongside döner, kebab and home cooking. Left on the plant, it ripens and becomes red chili pepper. In trade the two are separate products and are ordered separately; our guide to sourcing red chili covers the ripe fruit.
What to ask hot pepper suppliers first: consistent heat
Heat cannot be judged from the outside. A sweet Sivri pepper and a hot pepper can look identical side by side. For that reason hot varieties are kept separate in the growing area, and lot integrity is protected from harvest to carton. The complaint that most often reaches a buyer’s shelf is hot and sweet peppers mixed in the same lot. The only way to prevent it is to start the separation in the field, and it is a fair question to put to any supplier.
Heat depends on the variety, the growing conditions and maturity. Peppers grown in hot, dry weather are hotter, and the summer and winter crop of the same variety can differ. Asking for a sample before the first order is the shortest way to agree on the heat you expect. How heat is measured is explained in our article on Turkish hot peppers and the Scoville scale.
Year-round supply from a green chili pepper supplier in Antalya
Thanks to greenhouse production, green chili is supplied all year round. In summer the open-field crop comes in as well and volumes rise. In winter quantities are more limited, and product is reserved for buyers who give their weekly requirement in advance. If you run a winter programme, tell us your weekly volume early. The full calendar is set out in our pepper season and export calendar.
Quality criteria for export-grade green chili
Export-grade green chili is selected against these criteria:
- Length: the peppers in a carton must be close to one another in length. The length range is stated in the order.
- Colour: bright, uniform green. Fruit that has started to turn red is removed from the green lot.
- Skin: free of cracks, bruises and sunscald.
- Freshness: firm and crisp, with a green stem. A soft pepper is a pepper that has lost water.
- Trueness to type: no other pepper type mixed into the lot.
Harvest, cooling and transport temperature
The peppers are harvested with a short stem; a long stem pierces the skin of the pepper next to it in the carton. The product is cooled the same day. Peppers reach their longest shelf life at 7.5 °C and a relative humidity above 95%; under these conditions that is 3–5 weeks. Hot peppers tolerate chilling slightly better than bell peppers, but they must not share a vehicle with fruit carried at 0–2 °C. The details are in our guide to pepper storage temperature.
Packaging and minimum load
Green chili is packed in cartons of two sizes: 30 × 40 × 12.5 cm and 60 × 40 × 15 cm. The small carton is preferred in retail and ethnic grocery channels, the large one in wholesale.
The minimum load is planned by the truck: a standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck takes 33 euro pallets. Because all pepper varieties travel at the same temperature, green chili can be loaded on a mixed truck with other peppers. The options are described in our guide on how to import peppers from Turkey.
HS code for fresh green chili
Fresh peppers fall under HS code 0709.60. In the Turkish customs tariff, sweet peppers are classified under 0709.60.10. For hot peppers, we recommend confirming the applicable tariff line with your customs broker before shipment.
Documents when you import green chili from Turkey
Residue controls on peppers entering the European Union are strict. Every lot is analysed, and the result is compared with the limits of the destination market. How those limits work is explained in our article on EU pesticide MRLs; the papers buyers usually ask for are listed in which certificates European buyers require.
From harvest to loading, and how to get a quote
Green chili moves from Turkey in six steps: harvest, same-day cooling, grading, packing, cold storage and dispatch by refrigerated truck. At Hatipoğlu Tarım all six are carried out in house, in the company’s own facilities. When export-grade peppers are allocated, your market, sales channel and transit time are considered together.
As your green chili pepper supplier we need six details to quote: length range, the heat level you want, packaging, weekly volume, delivery week and destination country. With these we prepare a loading plan and a quotation. You can reach us by phone on +90 242 339 55 25, on WhatsApp on +90 534 260 07 25 or at info@hatipoglutarim.com.
Hatipoğlu Tarım has exported fresh fruit and vegetables from Antalya since 2002. Under the FİNİKE brand it ships 128 product lines to 42 countries, with harvest, grading, cold storage and dispatch handled in house across five facilities in Serik, Kepez, Mavikent, Yenişehir and Alaşehir.
Tell us the length, heat level and weekly volume for your green chili programme, and we will prepare a sample and a quotation.
