‘Perfect storm’: Reason giant mega-capsicums appearing in supermarkets

A “perfect storm” is behind the sudden appearance in supermarkets of an eye-wateringly huge mealtime favourite.

Look around the fruit and veg section of your local Coles and Woolies and you might notice something rather odd.

No, no – not the lack of fresh produce due to Omicron messing with supply chains.

When the fruit and veg is back, take a squiz at the capsicums. You may discover that all is not what it seems when it comes to the traffic light coloured crunchy staple of salads and stir frys.

Currently, capsicums are enormous. Huge. These mega-capsicums, brutes of bells, are as much as three times the length of your standard specimen.

News.com.au has seen the perplexing peppers – which still look and taste great – at Woolworths, Coles and IGA stores.

So what’s going on with Australia’s crop of colossal capsicums?

One farmer told news.com.au the country was in the midst of a capsicum “perfect storm”. A combination of rain and hail, some business closures and – yes – Covid-19 supply chain woes.

An unexpected bonus of that was that supermarkets were being less fussy and making do with fewer of the usual round and bubbly capsicums and more of these sinewy monster peppers.

Growers have said it’s a boon for shoppers that are getting more capsicum bang for their buck.

A super size capsicum found at a major retailer with its standard sized cousin in comparison.: Benedict Brook/news.com.au

Queensland crop affected by floods

Australia has several capsicum growing regions. Two of the biggest are southern Queensland and South Australia around Adelaide. Queensland usually supplies the fruit (Capsicums are strictly speaking fruit not vegetables – indeed they’re actually a kind of berry) during winter with South Australia taking on some duties over summer.

However, the weather has played havoc with the Queensland’s capsicum crop, Andrew Braham of Adelaide Plains grower Braham Produce told news.com.au.

“Stanthorpe, Brisbane where you would traditionally source lots of stock was hit by floods”.

He also said some Queensland suppliers had gone belly up.

“So they’ve been sourcing a lot more from South Australia. But we’ve had hail damage too that damaged some of the glasshouses so it’s been a bit of a perfect storm.

“The whole capsicum market has tightened”.

Add to that cooler weather in SA and Mr Braham said he estimated 50 per cent of capsicum production had been hit.

Adelaide Plains capsicum grower Andrew Braham. Picture: Brad Fleet

Enter South Australia and its power peppers

Not all capsicums are equal though, said Duy Ly founder of SA veggie grower 4 Ways Fresh, also based on the Adelaide Plains. And it’s because SA capsicums are often greenhouse grown as oppose to outdoors which is the method in Queensland.

Hail damage to the glass panels aside, greenhouse crops are less liable to changes in weather and certainly to pests. So rather than sow lots of plants that rapidly grow fruit – as with outdoor crops – greenhouse capsicums plants are usually fewer in number and have more time to cultivate due to there being less risk of them being affected by bad weather.

“This supports larger fruit as one root supports all the fruit. As the plant grows – up to two meters high – the later fruit will gradually shorten up to a normal size customers are used to,” said Mr Ly.

Mega-peppers crowd out a seemingly petite pepper – which is actually standard size. Picture: Benedict Brook/news.com.au

Supermarkets relax specs

Retailers generally have detailed specifications when it comes to fresh produce. Outsized fruit often doesn’t make the cut and end ups being sold separately, such as Woolworths’ “Odd Bunch” range or sent to markets, restaurants or for processing.

However, Mr Ly suspects that these guidelines have been relaxed due to the shortage and that’s why super-sized capsicums have appeared on supermarket shelves.

It’s not just that there are fewer capsicums, there are fewer people to pick them and ship them due to strict Covid-19 border controls and – now – Omicron.

“That’s caused shortages of adequate volume of regular sized fruit reaching the shops and hence shops are accepting variations to the normal specifications,” he said.

“Capsicum quality is still excellent but they’re not the size we are all used to seeing.”

Supermarkets have said they often review their fresh produce specifications.

Woolworths and Coles respond

The big supermarkets are circumspect when it comes to revealing whether they have relaxed specifications; although in the early days of the pandemic they did just that as customer’s stripped shelves.

News.com.au understands that buyers for the big grocers have indeed been more lenient due to the tightening of supplying and because the crop is still of good quality.

A Woolworths spokeswoman said the cooler weather in SA had meant the season was delayed impacting availability.

But it was “common” to see larger capsicums this time of the year due to SA’ “distinctively larger” crop, the company said.

“We continue to review our specifications in line with market conditions regularly and commonly see the size and variety of our capsicums change as we source from different regions across Australia.”

Coles said “the nature of fresh produce was that it was seasonal” and that meant fruit and veg can look different from month to month.

Strictly speaking, capsicums are berries, not vegetables. Picture: Marco Del Grande.

Capsicum bang for your buck

Mr Ly said capsicum lovers were getting a better deal because bigger fruit generally had smaller internal seed pods. Smaller seed pods are lighter and so don’t add so much to the cost.

It’s not a bad situation for the farmers either. After the drama of the hail and cooler weather in SA, things are looking up for growers and their in-demand capsicums.

“To some extent this has eased the pain for South Australian growers who are trying to produce a consistent fruit under challenging environmental conditions while juggling a severe shortage of labour to properly maintain their crops,” said Mr Ly.

Mr Braham agreed: “Things have been tight and the yields were down. But right now the price has gone up and the money’s not too bad”.

But enjoy your enormous capsicums while you can (and if you can find them with the current supply chain issues). Because as the season goes on and supply diversifies the shelves will be see less mega-capsicums and more of the bulbous, petite and very normal fruits we’ve all been used too.