You are looking for a caper supplier. Three quotations land on your desk. All three say "premium capers, export quality", and none of them means the same thing at the same price.
You order. The product arrives too salty for your recipe, or breaks down in cooking, or shows irregular calibres from one drum to the next. A container tied up, a line stopped, a customer to explain it to.
The problem is almost never the supplier. It is that the quotation left out what mattered. Three pieces of information settle it: the preservation method, the calibre, and who controls the lots. Here is how to read them.
What a caper actually is
A flower bud, hand-picked before it opens. Not a fruit, not a seed: a flower stopped just short of blooming.
Picked open, it loses its bite and its aroma. Picked too early, it weighs nothing. All the value sits in a window of a few days, which is why harvesting happens bud by bud, by hand, from June to November.
Not to be confused with the caperberry — the fruit that follows the flower, larger, often sold with its stem.
Salt, vinegar, brine: three products, not three packagings
This is the mistake that costs the most. A buyer thinks they are choosing a pack format; they are in fact choosing a different product, with different demands on the line.
Capers in dry salt
The bud is coated in dry sea salt. No liquid.
Salt draws out water and concentrates the aroma. This is the form chefs and food service buyers ask for — the cleanest flavour, the firmest texture.
Two practical consequences:
- It travels light. No brine to carry: for the same freight, a drum holds more usable product.
- It needs preparation. Rinsing or soaking before use. If your line cannot absorb that step, this is not your format.
It is also the caper that keeps longest without a cold chain.
Capers in brine
The bud sits in a solution of water and salt.
Ready to use, no rinsing. It is the standard for industrial lines and retail jars, for one simple reason: nothing to do before using it.
Brine also keeps the fruit firm and the calibre even from drum to drum. If you fill jars at speed, that consistency is what you are buying.
Capers in vinegar
The bud is held in vinegar.
The acidity comes from the pack, not from your recipe. On a line that would otherwise have to add it, that is one step removed.
The profile is sharper, brighter. It suits table condiments, sauces and retail jars. And the product stays shelf-stable without refrigeration.
How to choose: ask yourself one question — what does your line do with the product on arrival? If it rinses, take salt. If it uses it as is, take brine. If it needs acidity, take vinegar.
Calibre drives the price
Capers are graded by diameter, on an international scale:
| Calibre | Diameter | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Nonpareil | up to 7 mm | fine grocery, garnish, gastronomy |
| Surfines | 7 – 8 mm | premium retail |
| Capucines | 8 – 9 mm | mid-range retail |
| Capotes | 9 – 11 mm | pizza, salads, chopped preparations |
| Fines | 11 – 13 mm | sauces, tapenades |
| Grusas | 14 mm and above | industrial ingredient |
The smallest cost the most. That follows: a picker fills a crate far more slowly with 6 mm buds than with 12 mm ones, and tight sorting rejects more fruit.
A large calibre is not a degraded product. It is a different tool: a Grusas destined to be blended into tapenade does the same job as a Nonpareil, at a third of the price per kilo.
English-speaking food service buyers often call the smallest grade Lilliput. It is a commercial name, not a separate calibre: it maps to Nonpareil. Always ask for the millimetre range — it is the only language every packing line speaks. Our calibre guide with visual scale sets it out product by product.
Five questions to ask before ordering
Copy them into your next enquiry. A serious supplier answers all five in writing.
- Which preservation method, exactly? Dry salt, brine or vinegar — not "natural", which means nothing.
- Which millimetre range, and what tolerance? "Nonpareil" without figures commits no one.
- What drained weight per pack? Gross weight includes the brine. You are not buying salt water.
- Does a certificate of analysis come with every lot? And is a sample retained, so a disputed result can be re-tested?
- Which certifications, issued by which body? A claim of "certified" without a named body cannot be verified.
What we produce
CAPERSMED processes and exports Moroccan capers from the Fès-Meknès region. All three preservation methods, all six calibres, from the glass jar to the 250-litre drum.
Our certifications — BRC, IFS, FDA, Kosher, Halal and Ecocert organic — are listed with the body that issues them on the certifications page. An Ecocert-certified organic version is available on order, across the range. Formats and export terms are set out on the wholesale page.
The essentials in three lines
The preservation method determines what your line has to do on arrival. The calibre determines the price per kilo. Everything else — certifications, per-lot control, drained weight — separates a supplier who documents from a supplier who asserts.
Send us your specification: calibre, preservation, format, destination market. We answer with figures, not a brochure.
Request a quotation — or simply tell us what you buy today, and we will tell you what we can match.