‘Try another’: sriracha hot sauce shortage no cause for meltdown, grocers say

Australian grocers are starting to feel the heat as a predicted shortage of sriracha sauce has begun to affect supplies and prices. Last week, US-based chilli sauce company Huy Fong announced they would be halting production due to poor chilli harvests.

While sriracha has become a generic term for hot sauces made from chillis, garlic, vinegar, sugar and salt, Huy Fong’s sriracha is arguably the best known.

Alan Trinh, director of Thai Kee IGA in Sydney’s CBD, said there had been a price increase of “roughly 10-15%” for all Huy Fong products, including their sriracha – affectionately known as “rooster sauce” for its label – as well as their sambal oelek and chilli garlic sauce.

“The news has made it harder for restaurants to get their stock so they are coming in-store to buy from us, which creates more of a shortage,” he said.

Miky Wang, a senior executive at Tong Li Supermarkets, said they were aware of news regarding the expected shortage of Huy Fong products. “We do have some difficulty in getting the stock. The price has risen a lot,” she said.

A Coles spokesperson confirmed the supermarket giant had also been “experiencing inconsistent supply of Huy Fong Food’s Sriracha sauce from the US in recent months”.

“We are working closely with suppliers to determine when the product will be back on shelves,” they said.

Huy Fong sources its chillis from farms in California, New Mexico and Mexico, and poor chilli harvests have been blamed on record-breaking heat and a historic drought in western parts of the US.

In a statement reported in Bloomberg, Huy Fong said “several spiralling events, including unexpected crop failure from the spring chilli harvest” were behind the “unprecedented” shortage. Other publications such as NPR have linked the sriracha shortage to climate change, given extreme weather is behind the failed crops.

Rooster sauce devotees online have called it “the worst food news of the year” and are already contemplating hoarding the sauce.

But while Huy Fong products are in short supply, other chilli sauces have not been burned by the same difficulties in sourcing raw materials, as many of them are produced in Asia.

Trinh said his shop stocked sauce products from Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia: “If we are out of stock of one brand, our customers will try another.”

Trinh recommended Lingham’s sriracha as a close match for Huy Fong’s, while Wang suggested Eaglobe sriracha, which even sports the same green cap. Coles have suggested Pantai Sriracha Chili Sauce as an alternative.

Rod Sammut, founder of hot sauce subscription service Chilli Bom, said sriracha-style sauces could also be found closer to home.

Dingo Sauce Co, a Western Australian brand, makes a range of srirachas including Sammut’s “personal favourite”, a smoked version, while another WA company, Mofo, offers a miso sriracha.