The Sriracha shortage panic has returned.
In what’s become a dreaded tradition in recent years, fans of the beloved spicy chili sauce just got more bad news: The California company that popularized the condiment known for its distinctive fiery red color has halted production until after Labor Day.
Last week, Huy Fong Foods, which is based in Irwindale, sent a letter to its distributors blaming the four-month pause that could eventually snarl the sauce’s supply chain on the recent harvest of red jalapeño peppers.
“We have determined that it is too green to proceed with production as it is affecting the color of the product,” according to the letter, obtained by USA Today.
A representative for Huy Fong declined to comment Friday on the production halt or its cause, but the company said in the letter that it expected to resume production once the next chili season starts in September.
What caused past Sriracha shortages?
Huy Fong buys its peppers from several suppliers in Mexico, where dire drought conditions in recent years have hurt harvests and led to a water crisis so severe that taps ran dry in some towns.
Last spring, during a slowdown in production of the hot sauce — which is packaged in iconic bottles adorned with an image of a rooster and a neon green squeeze top — the company released a statement saying it was “still experiencing a shortage of raw material,” a sign of a dwindling harvest that climate experts warn will increasingly be the norm.
Another big problem with Huy Fong’s supply chain began with a bitter legal battle with the company’s longtime pepper grower.
For decades, the company got its peppers from Underwood Ranches in Ventura County, but the relationship eventually unraveled. In 2017, Huy Fong sued the grower, which quickly filed a cross-complaint accusing the hot sauce empire of a breach of contract that the grower said had cost it more than $20 million in losses.
Two years later, a Ventura County jury sided with the jalapeño farmer, awarding it $23 million.
What’s the beloved brand’s backstory?
David Tran, a Vietnamese refugee who upon arriving in the U.S. couldn’t find a hot sauce he liked, decided to create his own, founding Huy Fong Foods in Chinatown in 1980.
Through the years, he built it into a multimillion-dollar pepper empire that introduced Sriracha to the U.S. The company also makes a chili-garlic sauce and a ground chili paste called sambal oelek, both of which will also be affected by the production halt, USA Today reported. Today, Tran’s version of the company’s most famous sauce, which originated in Si Racha, Thailand, lines grocery shelves across the nation (when it’s in stock) and has won a cult following among devoted fans and foodies alike.
Bon Appétit named Sriracaha as its 2010 ingredient of the year.
How are consumers and competitors reacting?
Several Sriracha diehards posted in dismay this week, saying they planned to stock up before a potential shortage.
One person posted on X, linking to a story about the production halt and adding a message in all caps: “CAN’T WE HAVE ANYTHING NICE ANYMORE?” Someone else wrote that they planned to rush out and buy a case of bottles.
One of Huy Fong’s main competitors, Tabasco, bought the website srirachashortage.com, which redirects to a page on its site showing a large picture of its version of Sriracha, which save for swapping out the label and a gold top for the signature green one, still resembles Huy Fong’s bottle.
On its website, Underwood Ranches, the Ventura County grower that launched its own line of sauces after things went sour with Huy Fong, sells a three-pack of its Sriracha bottles adorned with an image of a dragon for around $27.
A tagline at the bottom of the Underwood site, which the grower indicated was trademarked, reads: “The peppers make the sauce.”
Huy Fong Foods has struggled to find a consistent and reliable supplier for its red peppers since its partnership ended with Underwood Ranches, Underwood said Friday.
“Creating a supply chain like that is far more complicated than people realize,” Underwood said. “The general public just takes for granted when these types of peppers are available. And there’s a much more sophisticated process to when you pick them and how you pick them.”
