A severe nationwide shortage of Huy Fong Sriracha is driving fans of the popular hot sauce to desperate measures to secure the condiment.
As supplies dwindled due to a shortage of chili peppers which are the sauce’s main ingredient, shoppers have launched extensive hunts for stores where it remains in stock and have had to pay exorbitant prices online.
In California, there have even been reports of customers slipping the iconic bottles, with their green caps and rooster logo, off the tables of a local restaurant chain.
“This Sriracha chili sauce shortage is getting ridiculous now,” one Twitter user wrote. “If you see any in your local Asian supermarket with the green cap bottle, hoard them like toilet paper during Covid.”
The shortage appears to be an extension of supply chain issues that date back to last year, when California-based Huy Fong Foods said drought conditions in Mexico caused a shortage of red jalapeno peppers used to make Sriracha.
A severe nationwide shortage of Huy Fong Sriracha is driving fans of the popular hot sauce to desperate measures to secure the condiment
Red jalapeno peppers used to make Sriracha are seen at the company’s factory in 2014. A shortage of peppers following a severe drought in Mexico is impacting production
“Unfortunately, we are still experiencing a shortage of raw materials,” the company told DailyMail.com in a statement this week.
“Although part of the production resumed during the last autumn season, we continue to have a limited supply which continues to affect our production. At this time, we have no estimate of when supply will increase.
“Because we do not sell directly at retail/market levels, we cannot determine when the product will be available again and/or who currently has the product in stock.
“We appreciate your patience and understanding during this unprecedented inventory shortage. We are currently working to try to avoid future shortages,” the statement added.
According to data earlier this year from grocery delivery service Instacart, Huy Fong Sriracha is the second most popular hot sauce in the United States, just behind Frank’s RedHot.
The production shortage left dedicated fans scrambling to get their hands on the sauce, and some sellers raised prices to take advantage of the situation.
Standard 17-ounce bottles, which typically sell for $4 to $6, now go for $30 or more on eBay.
On Amazon Marketplace, a seller listed the hot sauce for a staggering $179 for a two-pack of 17-ounce bottles.
TikTok user @eviesjourneys posted a video in April, describing how she visited six retailers looking for the sauce, before finally giving in and paying $35 for a two-bottle pack on Amazon.
“I love Sriracha, I eat Sriracha every day,” she told her followers.
On Amazon Marketplace, a seller listed the hot sauce for a staggering $179 for a two-pack of 17-ounce bottles.
In San Francisco, customers resorted to stealing bottles of Siracha from local restaurant chain Senor Sisig, according to SFGATE.
“They literally disappear,” Mariel Edwards, the chain’s operations manager, told the outlet. “We didn’t see people taking them, but there’s a bottle that’s going to be missing.”
Other restaurants that normally stock Sriracha face their own dilemma as vendors raise costs.
Michael Csau, co-owner of the Pho Viet restaurant in Washington DC, told NPR that if the price of Sriracha goes up a lot, he will have to switch to another brand.
“Usually when I would buy a crate it was around $30-$32. Now it’s up to $50, almost double the price. If it keeps going up, we can’t afford it. said Csau.
“But people, they’re used to the taste right now. So when they taste [another brand]they will know right away,” he said.
Last year, Huy Fong Foods blamed the weather for a shortage of chili peppers, amid a historic drought.
The company sources its peppers from various farms in California, New Mexico and Mexico, and said weather conditions are affecting the quality of the peppers and exacerbating the shortage of peppers.
“Currently, due to weather conditions affecting the quality of chillies, we are now facing a more severe shortage of chillies,” the company said in an April 2022 letter to customers.
The letter said that in addition to its Sriracha, the pepper shortage was also impacting Huy Fong’s only two other products, a garlic chili sauce and a sambal oelek, based on an Indonesian recipe.
It was not immediately clear whether weather issues were behind the ongoing shortages this year, with the company citing unspecified material shortages.
When operating at full capacity, the Huy Fong factory in Irwindale, California can produce 18,000 bottles of Sriracha per hour (file photo)
David Tran, 77, founded Huy Fong Foods in Southern California after fleeing Vietnam in 1978 with his wife and son, his savings hidden in cans of condensed milk.
Huy Fong Foods was recently valued at $1 billion by research firm IBISWorld, based on estimated sales of $131 million in 2020.
The company is owned by its founder David Tran, who fled Vietnam in 1978 with his wife and two children to start a new life in America.
The wholesale price of Sriracha has not changed since the early 1980s, as have the ingredients: chilli, sugar, salt, garlic and vinegar.
Tran remains stubbornly focused on the quality of his Sriracha, telling Forbes in a rare interview earlier this year: “I want to keep making a good quality product, like making the hot sauce more spicy… and not thinking about making more profit.
“I could use cheaper ingredients or promote my products to make more money,” Tran added. “But no, my goal is always to try and make a rich man’s hot sauce at a poor man’s price.”
