Last summer, Uyên Lê, owner and chef of Bé Ù Vietnam Street Food in East Hollywood, was raking up bottles of sriracha and trying to distribute food. Huifeng Foods announced a shortage of red chili peppers used to make sauces, which caught the attention of the world.

One of her employees suggested asking the public for help. Bé Ù offered free meals in exchange for Hui Fong Sriracha sauce and won around 300 bottles during the promotion. A year later, there are still about 100 bottles left in the restaurant.

“I have always been aware of the supply chain issues related to climate change and have understood that this is an issue that we have to adapt to. is,” said Le. “When I heard about the last shortage, I stocked up. I thought, ‘Well, is this too much? But it turned out to be prescient. “

Now that it’s summer again, the world is a little calmer as the maker of the famous Sriracha hot sauce, with its iconic green cap and bottle featuring a rooster, says it’s not yet known when supplies will return. ing.

Desperate Sriracha Lovers in the Bay Area Now swipe the bottle SFGate reported that the comments were made by Philippine restaurant chain Senor Sisig. An Asian grocery store in Oakland earlier this month sold a single 28-ounce bottle for $29.99, with a limit of two bottles per customer.

At the Alhambra’s 168 Market, dozens of sriracha imitation bottles line the shelves, but the section dedicated to Huifung Foods bottles is empty. According to the market manager, the hot sauce is sold out within the day it arrives, and customers are limited to one bottle.

“Many people call for sriracha sauce,” said the manager, who declined to give his name. “People are being polite. But we know people want it all the time. It’s been like this for months.”

The situation is similar online, where almost all sriracha options are out of stock on Amazon. At one point, a pack of two 17-ounce bottles was listed for over $160.

Last year’s shortages were caused by a drought in Mexico, a phenomenon that experts warn will become even more common in a warming planet.

Huifong Foods, which handles about 50,000 tonnes of chili a year to make sriracha, chili garlic sauce and sambal olek, sourced all its chilies for nearly 30 years from the Ventura County undergarment until a bitter bitter problem split the two companies. It was procured from Wood Ranch. A contract dispute that led to a multi-million dollar judgment in 2019 in favor of Underwood.

Huifong now sources its chili from multiple suppliers across Mexico, where a severe drought has reduced crops and caused water shortages in many cities and towns.

The Irwindale-based company said in a statement that “raw material shortages persist” and that it did not know when supplies would be restored. Some sriracha was produced in the fall, but production was limited.

Hoi Fong Foods said it was working to avoid a recurrence, but Gary Navan, an agroecologist and professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, said the amount of water currently used in the United States poses a threat to future food supplies. A shortage was almost certain, he said.

Large areas of Mexico receive their water from the Colorado River, but US farms have the first rights to that water. Farmers have been growing crops with dwindling water supplies for years, but the way they grow those crops has reached a stage where they have to adapt to the changing landscape, according to a recent study authored by Navhan. It is said that it has reached

Jalapeno peppers require about half the water needed to grow alfalfa and pecans, but they are still susceptible to drought and other crops far upstream needing water, Navan said. Told.

“Climate change is the ultimate driver, but it is also how we manage water equitably,” Navan said. “While any politician may be reluctant to reduce water allocations, we are not asking farmers to move to more efficient irrigation techniques.”

The United States is the largest importer of Mexican agricultural products, up 14% last year to a record $44.2 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Census Bureau. Mexican government.

According to Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, chili peppers grow in dry climates, with Mexican states such as Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Michoacán being among the top producers.

However, Mexico has been hit by a scorching heat wave and drought has hit large swaths of the country. Mexican government’s latest drought monitoring report.

A shortage of chili peppers used in Sriracha hot sauce has drawn public attention, but the effects of the drought have hit other crops as well, says the South, which focuses on global energy and agribusiness. Shon Hyatt, associate professor at the University of California, Marshall School of Business, said.

Kansas, one of the largest sources of hard red winter wheat, is expected to experience a historic crop failure this year due to drought. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“The Midwest is currently experiencing a drought. If you were to draw a line from Texas or Mexico, go straight north to Minnesota or Dakota,” Hyatt said.

The drought-induced disruption to Huifeng Foods’ supply chain resembles the wider situation that hit the United States early in the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first few months, manufacturers were unable to produce products such as ibuprofen and electronics as core components were imported from abroad.

“We realized, ‘Wow, we’re buying everything from China and Southeast Asia, so we’re very susceptible to supply chain shocks.’ We don’t make anything here,” says Hyatt. said Mr. “This is the same thing we see in agriculture.”

Huifeng Foods declined a request for an interview and said in a statement it could not identify which markets would see more of its products supplied.

Some people can’t wait to make their own sauce.

Christine Nguyen, owner-chef and owner of Garlic and Chives, a Michelin-recommended Asian fusion restaurant in Garden Grove’s Little Saigon, didn’t even think about the price of sriracha sauce before it became scarce. But now average bottles are sold at premium prices.

“I put it in a lot of my sauces, but I didn’t want to pass that cost on to my customers and I didn’t want to sacrifice the taste,” Nguyen said. “I put my heart and soul into what I make.”

Nguyen said the labor and ingredients to make his own sriracha sauce are expensive. Red jalapenos cost about 10 pounds and can sell for up to $8 per pound. There is also the cost of vinegar, sugar and other ingredients, plus the whole process takes time to ferment. Before the sriracha ran out, Mr. Nguyen would just reach for his Hui bottle of Phong.

“This impact really affects me because it takes up my time doing other things that I can do for my business,” Nguyen said.

She considers her sriracha to be closer to the classic flavor of Huy Fong, and said the problem could be avoided.

“If [Huy Fong] “We want to brainstorm ideas for alternatives,” she said, “we can crack the code.”