(KTLA) – If you find a bottle of Sriracha on the shelves, consider yourself lucky. The iconic condiment is a hot commodity because of a shortage.
Huy Fong, the Irwindale, California-based company that makes the sauce, says they don’t know when the shortage will end.
“Unfortunately, we are still experiencing a shortage of raw material,” the company told USA Today in a statement. “Although some production did resume this past fall season, we continue to have a limited supply that continues to affect our production.”
The shortage is caused by a drought in Mexico where the company sources all of its red jalapeño chili peppers for the sauce.
Fans of the condiment have kept buying though, keeping demand high. This has created a secondary market, where people are upselling bottles of Sriracha hoping to make big bucks.
If you log on to eBay or Facebook Marketplace, you will find hundreds of listings for the product, with some postings offering a single bottle of Sriracha for more than $100.
One Santa Monica, California, woman is getting a lot of attention for her sale post on Facebook Marketplace because of how much she’s asking for a nearly empty bottle of the sauce.
Chelsea Sule said she is selling “a few ounces of Sriracha” for $500.
A bottle of Sriracha normally sells for between $6 and $10.
“I’ve gotten a lot of responses. I’ve gotten over 300 hits on the actual post and then about 10 different messages,” Sule told KTLA. “One guy offered one bitcoin in exchange for the bottle.”
Sule said the post is all in good fun. She is a makeup artist who works on productions and has been impacted by the Hollywood strikes.
“I hear this liquid gold is in short supply,” Sule posted on Facebook Marketplace. “I sure do love my Sriracha, so I’ll keep it, but I love $500 more.”
When asked if she would miss the Sriracha, Sule didn’t think twice before giving her response:
“If I sell this for $500, are you kidding me? That’s a whole thing of Ozempic…it could be a down payment for my lobotomy,” she said, referring to the drug used to treat diabetes.
