ABSTRACT
Capsicum species, commonly known as peppers, are among the most important vegetable crops worldwide. According to FAOSTAT 2007 (https:// faostat.fao.org/), peppers are grown in all 77 recorded countries with a total production of more than 29 million tons. The world’s production of peppers continues to expand with an annual growth rate of 6.7%. India and China are the world’s fi rst and second largest producers, respectively, of dry and green peppers. Peppers also play an important role in the world vegetable trade. Worldwide, the import and export values of peppers (dry and green) in 2007 ‘were about $4.75 and $4.57 billion, respectively (Table 1-1).
