Why is there a sriracha shortage? What to know as hot-sauce maker Huy Fong Foods issues warning
The next shortage on your grocery store’s shelves is coming in hot. Sriracha is getting harder to find at restaurants and in stores around the country, and it doesn’t look like the chili sauce shortage will let up anytime soon.
Sriracha is made using fresh red jalapeño peppers, sugar, salt, garlic, and vinegar. California-based Huy Fong Foods, producer of the popular condiment, told CBS MoneyWatch that a drought in Mexico, where it buys the red jalapeños used for the sauce, caused a shortage of the chilies and has made it difficult for the brand to get enough to keep up with demand.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the company traditionally uses around 50,000 tons of chilies each year to produce its line of sauces, sourced from several different producers across Mexico. Beyond Sriracha, the company also makes a chili-garlic sauce and the Indonesian sauce, sambal oelek.
The chilies can only grow in Southwestern United States or northern Mexico and are typically grown during the first four months of the year. That entire area suffered from a significant drought last summer, and the company warned in June 2022 that a shortage might be on the horizon and briefly ceased production of the sauce. Last year, beyond the drought, the crops also were impacted by two back-to-back La Niña events.
While Huy Fong Foods was able to work through last year’s shortage and restart some production last fall, a local ABC affiliate reports that restocking shelves has become an issue, and some retailers are now rationing how many bottles of the sauce a customer can buy.
Many restaurants that serve sriracha-dependent dishes are also reportedly stockpiling the condiment to prepare for a potential deficit.
An end to the shortage doesn’t appear to be near. Currently, the company, which is limited by farmers’ ability to grow the peppers, doesn’t have a timeline for when, or if, supply will increase. So hot-sauce lovers, consider yourself warned.
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