Consumers just don’t seem to be able to buy enough of the bagged mini peppers that have skyrocketed in popularity over the last year or two.

“We can’t seem to find the ceiling (on production),” quipped Mike Aiton, marketing manager for Coachella, CA-based Prime Time International. “We continue to expand production. In fact, we are going to at least double what we did last year and demand is still very good.”

When the mini pepper was first introduced, marketers assumed it was a bit of a specialty item. It was sold in 12-ounce clamshells, assuming that the consumer would use it somewhat sparingly. The 12-ounce clamshell has now been replaced with one and two-pound bags and Mr. Aiton said the two-pound bag is the big mover.

Of course, the colored pepper category, consisting of all shape and sizes, is a great success story and has fueled Prime Time’s growth for the past 15 years. Mr. Aiton said the standard size colored pepper in green, red, yellow and orange are still the firm’s signature commodity. Prime Time produces these peppers 365 days a year from various growing regions ranging from its headquarters in the Coachella Valley to several Mexico locations. The company continues to experiment with other colors — including purple, white and brown — but the other four are the standard bearers for that category, and are a must have for virtually every retailer in the country.

Coachella Valley produces the bulk of the firm’s annual production but it just gets too hot in the desert environment at the peak of the summer. From July through September, production moves elsewhere. For the immediate future — the December to April time period — both Baja California and mainland Mexico offer growing districts to compliment the firm’s California desert production.

Mr. Aiton believes that the winter holiday season, as well as the following few months, will see great supplies of peppers. “There should be promotable supplies for that entire time period,” he said.

He said the scuttlebutt in Mexico is that the uncertainty surrounding the talks about the tomato suspension agreement between the United States and Mexico caused some below the border growers to look for other opportunities. “We hear that some growers might have cut back their tomato acreage and increased their plantings of peppers,” he said. “There should be plenty of peppers this winter.”

While Mexico does consume a lot of peppers of all varieties, the commercial colored peppers grown in greenhouses, shade houses, under mesh and in open fields are almost exclusively grown for the U.S. and Canadian markets.

Mr. Aiton said researchers continue to improve and upgrade the varieties grown but the changes are subtle and not particularly noticeable to the untrained eye.