The drought that has been hitting Mexico for several months is undermining the production of Sriracha sauce in the United States, a spicy sauce with a particular taste very popular with Americans.
Between 26 and 120 euros. This is the price range that can reach in recent days, in the United States, a bottle of Sriracha on online sales sites. An exorbitant price for this very popular hot sauce, which is explained by the drought that has been affecting Mexico for several months, reports Courrier international, based in particular on articles published in the Guardian and the Mexican daily Milenio.
Because it is in this country that grow the famous jalapenos red, these peppers which go into the composition of the Sriracha sauce, notably produced by the American leader Huy Fong Foods. The latter recently announced that it had to lower its production.
A careful interview
THE jalapenos Reds require careful maintenance and grow with irrigation, but “the amount of water available decreases” with drought, explains the Guardian Paul Gepts, a culture researcher at the University of California.
“If you don’t have a minimum quantity to irrigate your crops and it doesn’t rain, there will be no harvest,” he points out.
Stephanie Walker, a plant scientist at New Mexico State University, agrees: “It’s a real challenge to grow and harvest the jalapenos. They are labor intensive, with people having to destem them by hand before they are used for sauce.”
Five species of red peppers
There are five species of red peppers on the American continent, from Mexico to Bolivia, which have the degree of spiciness necessary to create the sauce Sriracha, indicates the English daily. Some are used in other sauces and for Sriracha imitations. But fans will recognize the trickery, according to Stephanie Walker:
“To successfully capture the distinctive flavor of Sriracha sauce, red jalapenos must be had because of their unique taste that consumers love: that citrus-like chili that’s both tangy and tart.”
In the United States, the hot sauce sales market amounts, according to Milenio, to 2.5 billion dollars in 2022. It has also increased that year by 1.5% compared to the year former.
Source: BFM TV
