Perhaps none of us Hungarians think of the fact that whenever we put milled paprika (condiment paprika, red pepper, seasoning paprika) into our meals, the tiny grains of the flame red spice bring back a small part of five hundred years in world history over and over again. This spice brings together the South-American flora before the time of Columbus and the climate and soil of the southern region of the Great Hungarian Plain, praising the effort of local people and making it famous all over the world. Thus the world has become richer with a special Hungarian flavour, aroma and scent, a spice — the milled paprika.

It has been five hundred years since Columbus discovered America, and giving way to human curiosity, brought paprika (Capsicum) to Europe alongside tomato, potato and corn. Then with the contribution of travellers, salesmen end merchants paprika spread from Spain onto the whole continent, first as an ornamental plant, then as herb, and finally as a spice. Who would have thought that nearly 300 years later the world would know this "newcomer" as an original Hungarian spice.

It can only be explained by the particular climatic and soil conditions that the paprika, which was taken far away as well, became an important crop only in the regions of Szeged and Kalocsa. The fact that milled paprika became really important only at the end of the 19 th century is a result of the development in agriculture, food industry and world trade.

In Hungary exclusively hot varieties were bred and manufactured until the 1930s. They were used for milled products and class according to quality, ranging on a wide scale, from the slightly hot to the very hot ones. Their production was made possible by an extremely precise traditional manufacturing technology having all its steps fully developed.

However, times have changed, and the first sweet paprika types were upgrade from the non-hot strains discovered by Ferenc Horvát in Kalocsa in the 30s. of the 20 th  century. Consequently splitting techniques have been pushed into the background and the rolling mills still operating at the beginning of the century also became things of the past. Though slowly, but growing technologies still change processing and milling are becoming modern, however, paprika remains the spice of the Hungarians forever.

Research, growing and processing of the Hungarian paprika has come a long way. The earlier spice paprika production based on regional varieties has been replaced by the production of improved varieties relying on an ever-changing selection of cultivars and providing a high quality raw material for milling. The present publication would not only like to help those who have been involved with spice paprika breeding for a short or long  time but it is also to help those who would like to start handling the plant in the future.

On behalf of my colleagues as well as growers and manufacturers, who al live for and by the spice paprika, let me express my hope that the present publication will do something in order to lead back Hungarian paprika where it used to be a hundred years ago: one of the most demanded and liked spices in the world market, a concept — Hungarian Paprika — Hungaricum

The paprika types with a high biological value, upgraded by researchers of the Fűszerpaprika Kutató-Fejlesztő Kht. in Kalocsa and Szeged satisfy all needs in every field of the food industry, including the manufacturing of extra quality milled paprika products or other raw material for the food industry. Some cultivars have high capsaicin contents providing very good raw material for the pharmaceutical industry. The staff of the Fűszerpaprika Kutató-Fejlesztő Kht. will be putting an even bigger emphasis on building close communication with their present and future partners, which includes the whole growing cycle starting from choosing the cultivar to product processing. This is the intention behind the present publication of cultivar recommendations, which offers 23 cultivars for growers, including the oldest, tried out and the most modern ones. We hope that everyone will find the suitable cultivar for their needs our colleagues will provide expert help to achieve successful production. We are waiting for any feedback, notice, suggestion or demand that you might have in order to meet your expectations with our work.

On behalf of the researchers working in the Kalocsa and Szeged, we wish you a lot of success for the coming years.

dr. József Kapitány

managing director