✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Warm-season crop · Spice

Chili Pepper

Capsicum frutescens · Solanaceae

Chili Pepper is a warm-temperate crop that grows best in the 18–30°C range with 600–1500 mm of rain, cropping over a 120–180-day season. Today it is grown mostly in China, India and Türkiye.

Optimal temp
18–30 °C
Annual rain
600–1500 mm
Max altitude
2,000 m
Cold limit
7°C
Growing cycle
120–180 d
Climate-fit land
33 % world

How it grows

Chili Pepper
Photo: Rrinsindika (Indika Kumara) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Chili Pepper
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0
🫐 On a shrub

Chili Pepper grows on a woody shrub, its fruit held above the ground.

What it’s worth to grow

$1.01 / kg at the farm gate
$$$$$
Mid-value
pricier than 66% of all crops · #9 of 9 herbs & spices
Ranked against similar crops — Herbs & spices
Cinnamon$9.88/kg
Vanilla$4.71/kg
Black Pepper$3.61/kg
Nutmeg$3.54/kg
Cardamom$3.54/kg
Clove$2.92/kg
Spearmint$1.86/kg
Ginger$1.84/kg
Chili Pepper ◀$1.01/kg

Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 448 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.

Where Earth's climate suits chili pepper

Global climatic suitability map for Chili Pepper
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
33% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production · FAOSTAT 2024
World harvest 62.1M t/yr
China17.31M t
India5.32M t
Türkiye3.43M t
Mexico3.22M t
Indonesia3.04M t
Spain1.52M t
Egypt1.08M t
Nigeria777k t
Latest reported year. Source: FAO FAOSTAT.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
United States of America
Russia
Brazil
China
Australia
India
Canada
Argentina
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

The climate where it grows

China🌧 164% rain · wet
12°C · 987 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
India🌧 153% rain · wet
26°C · 1095 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Türkiye🌧 49% rain · dry
12°C · 695 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Mexico🌧 41% rain · dry
21°C · 948 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND

— mean monthly temperature   ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 18–30°C · tolerates 7–40°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 600–1500 mm · tolerates 400–2000 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.3–8.3 · tolerates 4.3–8.3
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±40° · soil pH 4.3–8.3.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 120–180 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.

Related crops