Authorization to export Chile Meppecio to Japan is the entrance door to sell the food to South Korea, Singapore, China and Europe, considered Alfredo Díaz Belmontes, general director of the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture (Rawpac).
“The United States is a gigantic market, but I personally visualize Japan as the entrance door to the Asian region of Chile of Chile Pepper Morrón,” said the businessman.
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Bell Pepper producers (or Chile Pepiento Morrón) are sought to sell the food to other countries in Asia such as Singapore, South Korea and China, Mexico told Forbes Mexico.
“In the case of Chile, Broad and Pepin Pepper there is no restriction, but in the tomato there is restriction and we have no phytosanitary protocol with China,” said the representative.
China is another monstrous market, but for the moment “we are already going to enter through Japan and we will start playing other countries in Asia,” he said.
In March 2026, when Bell Pepper producers go to Foodex will take and have the results of the cabinet investigation to know the benefits of some Asian markets,
“There (in Foodex) we find buyers from those countries, so the idea is to start and now to land business (in Asia).”
Japan opens the door the Bell Pepper
For several years, the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture brings market diversification and crops to add value to what is produced in Sinaloa.
Japan authorized the export of Chile Bell Mexican, popularly known as Morrón pepper, as of September 18, 2025.
“This achievement is the result of 16 years of negotiations and technical and diplomatic efforts, which reflects the strict fulfillment of the health and safety protocols headed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), through the National Service of Health, Safety and Agrifood Quality (Senasica),” said the National Agricultural Council (CNA).
According to the agency led by Jorge Esteve Reolons, the export of Chile Morrón is thanks to rigorous studies, multiple international inspections and efforts before the Ministry of Agriculture, Silviculture and Fisheries of Japan (Maff).
The Mexican authorities showed that the Mexican Bell Chile is not a host of the pathogen known as the blue mold of tobacco, a plague that at the time motivated the restriction on the export of this product, said the organization.
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From January to May 2025, the United States bought more than 623 million dollars from Bell Pepper to the Mexican countryside, while Canada acquired more than 21 million dollars, according to the Bank of Mexico (Banxico).
Chile exports of Chile Pepper Morrón had a fall of 0.254 percent in the first five months of the year due to Donald Trump’s tariff.
Annually, 96 percent of Chile’s exports of Chile Pepper bells end in American shelves and stores.
The average annual production of this crop in Mexico exceeds 3.1 million tons, with a strong participation of states such as Sinaloa, Sonora, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Chihuahua and San Luis Potosí.
Mexico was in a comfort zone seeing and exporting goods and services to the United States, the largest market in the world and “the only market we have,” said Alfredo Díaz Belmontes.
Agricultural producers knew of vulnerability for all the shakes given by Donald Trump’s tariffs, president of the United States.
“We had mapped the Asian markets and European markets to try to identify demand and business opportunity (of Chile Pepiento Morrón),” explained the general director of the AMHPAC.
The National Agricultural Council (CNA) invited 10 producers of the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture to form part of the Pavilion of Mexico at the Foodex Fair in Japan.
“We were 10 producers to Japan to promote what we already brought, specifically the Bell Pepper,” said the business representative.
For many years, the government of Japan had closed the market to the Bell Pepper Mexican, arguing that it was susceptible to the blue mold of tobacco, he said.
“Around 4 years, the affiliates of the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture prove that this statement of the Government of Japan was not true, or at least it is no longer true, I do not know if it would have been before,” he added.
The members of the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture hired a research center in Sinaloa, so a phytosanitary protocol began to develop, he said.
In 2024, a group of technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture of Japan visited Culiacán to know in situ the investigation that the Bell Pepper is free of the blue mold of tobacco, he added.
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“The Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture was invited by the Embassy of Spain in Mexico to go to the Food Attraction Fair, which will take place at the end of September in Madrid,” he said.
On September 23, 24 and 25, 2025, Chile producers of Chile Pepper, Pepino and Tomato are invited by an Ítalo-Latin American organism to be at another fair in Italy to promote and look for business options, said Díaz Belmontes.
