Our company, Chili Produkt Kft. – with nearly twenty-five years of trade experience and background – was established in 2009 under this name and has been involved in spice trade ever since. Our main products are paprika powder, various spices and dehydrated vegetables. Also, we produce customized spice mixes for our partners.
Our main partners include meat processing companies, children's and industrial catering suppliers, soup powder and other food producers as well as canned food producer companies.
Our mission is to deliver the highest quality products directly from producers and distributors at the lowest possible prices to our partners.
Apart from the fact that we are in direct connection with numerous Hungarian producers, our spice importing activity aims at by-passing indirect procurement and at ensuring complete quality stability and price guarantee for our partners.
Our wholesale storage
Our spacious warehouse capacity and significant inventory make it possible to fulfill and ship orders to any point in Hungary or the region within a minimal time frame, even less than 24 hours. We have an assortment of nearly 100 products the number of which is continuously increasing.
For pictures click hereThe history of paprika powder
The paprika plant or red pepper (latin name: Capsicum annuum L. var. Longum DC.) is the most typical Hungarian spice plant. With its characteristic, unique aroma and red colour, it represents a crucial part of the Hungarian gastronomy.
However, paprika is not a native Hungarian plant. Its native region is South America. It was brought to Europe and later to Asia after the discovery of America. On our continent, the first country where paprika gained popularity was Portugal and it was later brought to other countries as well.
In Hungary, paprika was first grown in the 1600s, supposedly brought from abroad by Mária Széchy, the wife of count Ferenc Wesselényi. The first species were grown in the garden of the Franciscan monastery in Szeged. In the XVIII century, Szeged and its region had significant paprika plantations. In a couple of decades, it was popularized in the whole country, first in Szentes and later in Kalocsa and its region. It is not a coincidence that paprika from Szeged and Kalocsa is the pride of our country.
Today, paprika is grown in many regions of the world. The most significant producers are the South American countries, USA, China, Spain, Italy, and the countries of the Carpathian basin, among which the most significant producer is Hungary. As our company is in a close relationship with numerous producers in Hungary and abroad, apart from high quality Hungarian paprika powder, our company sells paprika powder with Chinese, Spanish and South American origin as well.
Where does the name paprika come from?
Columbus first referred to it as red pepper. When it was brought to Hungary, it was most probably called similarly. In the first Hungarian written documents from the XVIII century it appears as “papar”, the southern Slavic name for pepper of that time.
A humorous anecdote states it differently. According to it, clerics, who worked as teachers and doctors, ate paprika in order to popularize the plant among people. However, at that time, paprika was hotter than it is now, so simple people noticed that tear appeared in clerics’ eyes after eating paprika. As cleric means “pap” in Hungarian and the old name for cry is “rí”, it is believed that the name comes from the “pap-ríkató” or “cleric-crier” word formation.