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Southern California's Huy Fong Foods has suspended production of its wildly popular Sriracha hot sauce because of a pepper shortage.
The company says that weather conditions have affected the quality of the peppers they source from farms in California, New Mexico, and Mexico to concoct their signature sauce, also known as "rooster sauce." Drought and hotter-than-normal temperatures have been reeking havoc on many crops throughout the nation, including pepper.
The shortage of peppers began in July of 2020, and the situation is so extreme that Huy Fong has been forced to stop production of three products, the classic Sriracha, Chili Garlic and Sambal Oelek sauces, and they won't be filling any orders until after Labor Day.
In April, they notified distributors that they should not promise deliveries of these sauces, stating, "We understand that this may cause issues," the company wrote. "However, during this time we will not accept any new orders to be placed before September as we will not have enough inventory to fulfill your order."
Huy Fong Foods told Food & Wine magazine "Unfortunately, we can confirm that there is an unprecedented shortage of our products," the company wrote. "We are still endeavoring to resolve this issue that has [been] caused by several spiraling events, including unexpected crop failure from the spring chili harvest. We hope for a fruitful fall season and thank our customers for their patience and continued support during this difficult time."
David Tran began producing Sriracha in 1980 when he and his family launched the Huy Fong Foods company in Los Angeles. Since then, the brand has dominated not only the Asian hot sauce market, but has also become the leading hot sauce nationwide.