Summer Just Got Less Spicy Because Of A Major Sriracha Shortage
Here's when your fave hot sauce will be available again.
Sriracha fans, listen up, because it may be tricky to get your hands on a bottle of hot sauce this summer. Huy Fong Foods, the maker of Sriracha, announced on April 19 that a chili pepper shortage could prevent the company from producing a few varieties of its fan-favorite hot sauce. If you love to add the spicy sauce to just about everything, then you’re probably wondering: When will the Sriracha shortage end? It looks like you’ll have to sit tight, because it might be a while.
If you were hoping to spice up your favorite summer snacks with Sriracha, you may have to start looking for some alternatives. That’s because retailers and restaurants across the country are bracing for a limited stock of Sriracha due to a recent production shortage. In an April 19 letter, California-based company Huy Fong Foods shared details behind the shortage, which is affecting the production of a few of its popular sauces, including Chili Garlic, Sambal Oelek, and Sriracha Chili Hot Sauce. The company explained that its limited production is due to a shortage of chili peppers, which are used to make Sriracha, writing, “Currently, due to weather conditions affecting the quality of chili peppers, we now face a more severe shortage of chili.”
Huy Fong Foods uses chili peppers from Mexico to make its Sriracha sauces, but the country is currently experiencing a drought that’s also affecting parts of the western United States.
In the letter, Huy Fong Foods shared that orders that were placed on or after April 19 for any of the affected sauces won’t be fulfilled until after Labor Day, which falls on September 5 this year. The company also explained that new orders will be on hold until September. Since the company isn’t planning to fulfill its backlogged Sriracha orders until September, you can sadly expect the shortage to last through the whole summer.
Of course, once Sriracha is expected to be back in stock beginning in September, it should be much easier to get your hands on a bottle of the hot sauce. Until then, however, it’s probably a good idea to prepare for a little less spice this summer.
