First, it was toilet paper. Then, it was baby formula. Now, it’s sriracha sauce.
Americans may have a hard time getting their hands on the classic spicy condiment, according to a Wednesday report from Axios. An April letter from Huy Fong Foods — the California-based company known for producing the popular sriracha brand featuring a rooster on the bottle — warned consumers that a “shortage of chili pepper inventory” may limit the availability of the product.
The news comes as the United States continues to grapple with supply chain shortages. Since the fall of 2021, Americans have voiced frustration with the low availability of key groceries in local stores.
Huy Fong Foods informed Axios that it hopes to “resume production as normal” with the fall harvest — meaning that orders made after April 19 will be moved to Labor Day or later.
“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,” the company said in its letter, which noted that the chili shortage will impact the rest of their products as well. Restaurants across the United States — for example, Brady’s Sushi and Hibachi in Richmond, Kentucky, as featured by Axios — warned their customers via social media that they would not be able to offer the product.
Huy Fong Foods sources its peppers from Mexico which, alongside the western United States, is enduring a drought. As covered by Daily Wire reporter Charlotte Pence Bond, persistent agricultural bottlenecks are plaguing American farmers.
A fertilizer crisis, for example, is likely poised to disrupt food supply chains. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City indicated that fertilizer expenses had risen 90% from the year before, as of February. A report by the International Food Policy Research Institute from April likewise revealed that market prices for food and fertilizer increased 125% from January 2021 to January 2022, spiking again after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia combined produce approximately 12% of the world’s calories, as well as 30% of the world’s traded wheat. The United Nations warned as early as March that Ukraine’s ability to “harvest crops, plant new ones or sustain livestock production” would be compromised due to the invasion.
African nations like Kenya and Ethiopia — which are already struggling with drought conditions and related livestock deaths — are now facing compounded shortages amid the global rise in food prices. Beyond food, Russia alone produces 11% of the world’s oil supply. Much of the world has seen a surge in gas prices since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion — likewise increasing costs for farmers around the world.
In response to the continued global crises, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) decreased its 2022 world economic growth forecasts earlier this week from 4.5% to 3%.
“The economic outlook is pretty bleak,” OECD Deputy Secretary-General and French economist Laurence Boone explained. “As the war continues, it is pushing up inflation and slowing growth. Russia’s aggression comes with a price we’re all paying — disruptions have driven up food and energy prices, which are putting a high burden on all of us, and especially the most vulnerable.”