The Huy Fong's kid got their business and MBA degree. They tried to find the cheapest supplier of pepper. However, the MBA school did not teach them the meaning of loyalty.
Burning your sole supplier with a proven record of growth, delivery and quality over a few million dollars and to save pennies per bottle isn't smart business. The cost of reputation and disruptions in supply have ended their record profits. Plus they are a private business, they don't need to chase quarterly earnings for shareholders. His son is just an idiot.
@@chinogambino9375 When maximizing next quarter's profits is the only thing driving your decision making your business will decline. His son's poor management also opened the market for competition. I found a sriracha I like better, the Trader Joe's one, and I never would have even considered trying different brands but I was forced to due to the self-inflicted shortage.
Walmart did a deal like this with pickles. finally the producer/grower got tired of being lowballed by Walmart about his prices. He secretly started contracting all the cucumber production he could and when he declined to meet Walmarts production price they cut him off. What they didn't count on was no other company could ramp up production because now one guy held all the cucumber production for 3-5 year and wouldn't sell to anyone working with Walmart. Finally Walmart caved but it cost them dearly. And they deserve it.
Walmart alienates a lot of suppliers. I recall getting various goodies at my nearest Walmart at bargain prices but sooner or later they disappear when Walmart squeezes too hard.
Wallmart has exclusivity contracts but they don't buy imperfect produce, if they're going to have exclusivity they should buy everything from the producer and the imperfect veggies could be chopped up for the frozen food section, pickles or used as ingredients in Walmart branded foods. There is an enormous amount of rejected food ending up in landfills every year rejected for reasons such as lack of symmetry in carrots or deformity in pumpkins.
@@HepCatJack and yet somehow, the majority of produce I've ever gotten from walmart has tasted absolutely terrible. They look normal, but they are not. I'd rather pay more and go elsewhere.
Here in Canada they bragged that Canadians are gobbling up the GMO salmon at record pace, but then admit that its sold unmarked at mystery stores. I dont eat salmon anymore. When you have things like Epicyte, you know they not only just dont care, but they just dont want you. @@HepCatJack
I had a bunch of bottles in the cupboard that I forgot about. After hearing of the shortage, I started using it. I forgot how good the stuff is. It goes with pizza, tortilla chips with hummus, tostadas, or just about anything.
i only had 2 different brands of Sriracha, the one in this video, and Yellowbird, and i can't imagine any other Sriracha better than Yellowbird...Pricier...Whole foods has bigger bottles at a better price than the normally small bottles, though it's still not a huge bottle.....
My dad tried growing Jalapeño Peppers in his garden and they came out tasting like bell peppers, no heat at all. He worked with a guy who made his own hot sauce (it was really really good btw) and he asked how much water my dad gave them. Turns out you have to stress the plants, giving them just enough water to keep them alive. The more water you give them beyond what they need to survive the lass hot they will me. Dad's next batch were very hot.
oh, no wonder my home grown peppers were so hot one year. The soil I used drained too well and I realized it late, and even a nibble of the peppers was lava hot.
Asian American here. I’m with the farmer. It’s so uncharacteristic of the founder to do shady business like he did on this one and I believe his relatives who’s helping him run the business are the ones behind it. He’s never the greedy kind from interviews I’ve seen of him. He’s had a GREAT relationship with his supplier for a long time which helped grew his business tremendously. Why would you suddenly risk losing this relationship? Loyalty is very important and rare in business and what helps you grow your business but in only takes one act of GREED to destroy it. Most will never get it back ever again because they will always be wary of you and have trust issues with you.
yeah, no doubt the old man was an awesome guy maybe his kids went to business school and wanted to "vertically integrate" or something That would be a great idea, but it seems like there was an internal conflict within the company, because they signed contracts with the farmer but then later tried to back out of it, get other suppliers and finally tried to steal the farm essentially. Someone in his company or family fought for a change in direction, but didn't think it through thoroughly. It seems like they almost killed the goose that laid golden eggs.
There is a part of the story where it mentioned the farmer overcharge HF for $1.5 million. That might have been the cause of HF wanting to cancel the contract.
I live in the city next to Irwindale (where the processing plant is), and my wife works in that city. I think it was in 2013, the owner had a big celebration and invited the public to come in and see the plant. Every person on the tour got a medium sized bottle of siracha, siracha ice cream, got to see dragon dancers, take handfuls of free jalepeno peppers, and meet the founder and take pictures with him. I have a picture of him with my family. He had an important message for all of us... America was truly the land of opportunity and he was very greatful to this country. I dont know why things got bad, but he seemed to be a great guy.
At least the owner is an innovative , industrious entrepreneur who brought economy and livelihood to the community. We need people like him in America, not those who whine whine whine. It’s not after short supply before we realized how much we missed the yummy sauce.
@@WiLDCHiLD. Why did Underwood farm sold their crops per acre and not per lb⁉️🙄😒🤔 It sounded fishy and it would be a rip off if the farm didn't produce as much as they should‼️ 😰🤬 Talk about "greedy" almost all businesses are greedy for profit, isn't it ⁉️ 🙄🤔
@@WiLDCHiLD. may have been the kid(s) or the next gen who's taking over the business. It has not failed yet but if they keep at it, consumers will adjust their tastebud to other hot sauce and completely forget and/or lose interest in their sauce. Many don't mind getting gouged but I for one refuse to pay $10 for a bottle of Huy Fong Sriracha which is the current market price.
i remember seeing a video of a master sushi chef, and a part i never forgot was the loyalty and honor system between the chef and the supplier. the chef would never ask or haggle on the price of the fish or cut him out by going to other vendors, while the vendor or supplier would only supply his best fish and if the fish was not of good quality he would not sell the chef the fish, as his reputation was attached to the fish as well. as a result the chef would only be supplied with the best ingredients which was a pain staking task for the vendor to gather. loosing a vendor to a master sushi chef is a massive blow. huy fong made a massive blunder by under cutting the supplier who dedicated himself to making a whole supply chain system to give them the best peppers. when it comes to book keeping the supplier has to sell all his perishable goods. if the buyer decides to cut out the supplier right as he has dedicated himself to gathering/growing those supplies. sure the buyer might save a few pennies, but it royally screws over the supplier as he has a bunch of goods that has to be liquidated or they will expire.
Huy Fong should have honored their end of the agreement. I can't imagine having a thousand acres of chiles and suddenly no buyer. Then to find out they allowed you to grow them, knowing full well that they had no intention of taking delivery, would be grounds for war. There are places where if you do a neighbor like that, you'll wish you had sold out and moved. You would have to drive 2 towns over to get a cup of coffee.
It's important to note that the city of Irwindale INVITED the company to build the new plant there, and the residents & farmers celebrated the new jobs! Then the city shut the plant down because of the smell of crushed peppers. That's a pretty 🍆move!
I've been literally inside the factory during production and the smell isn't even that bad! Ridiculous. The smell is 100% worth the jobs. There are actual dangerous chemicals in the air/water that California should be worrying about instead of taking away jobs.
never ever mess with your suppliers! You would think this is 101 but many businesses bizarrely doesn’t understand this rule. (especially small businesses). When the going gets bad, it is easiest to stop paying your suppliers as a stop gap measure. But this almost ensures the start of a death spiral.
i remember seeing a video of a master sushi chef, and a part i never forgot was the loyalty and honor system between the chef and the supplier. the chef would never ask or haggle on the price of the fish or cut him out by going to other vendors, while the vendor or supplier would only supply his best fish and if the fish was not of good quality he would not sell the chef the fish, as his reputation was attached to the fish as well. as a result the chef would only be supplied with the best ingredients which was a pain staking task for the vendor to gather. loosing a vendor to a master sushi chef is a massive blow. huy fong made a massive blunder by under cutting the supplier who dedicated himself to making a whole supply chain system to give them the best peppers. when it comes to book keeping the supplier has to sell all his perishable goods. if the buyer decides to cut out the supplier right as he has dedicated himself to gathering/growing those supplies. sure the buyer might save a few pennies, but it royally screws over the supplier as he has a bunch of goods that has to be liquidated or they will expire.
I worked for the company that produced most of the jalapeño seed that Underwood grew and remember when the lawsuit happened. We produced a lot of seed for them.
Story doesn't really add up. Don't think Huy Fong was money hungry enough to destroy relations with his long time supplier. He never patented his recipe. He never advertised his product. He never chased people down for copying his product. He never went after merchandising of his product. He always believed in seeing the ingredients going into his product; old school hard-worker and ethics kind of guy. Why would a basically retired immigrant, who built his fame through slow word-of-mouth... suddenly radically try to expand using drones for espionage??? Probably children taking over got involved.
I agree. The story doesn't add up and sounds biased. Back in 2013, I used to sell phone cases with Sriracha logos on them. Huy fong emailed me and said they didn't care if we did it without their permission, they just wanted some free phone cases for some of the employees. I gladly sent them a big box of phone cases for free. They were super kind.
This is CNBC. They release stories not for the sake of journalism, but for the sake of corporate investors. In this case, someone is paying them to promote Underwood Ranches. The info in the story may or may not be true.
You can find sriracha hot sauce anywhere. Huy Fong brand is the one you have a hard time finding cause they now use a different suppliers, then from the farm that use to supply them that was located 50 miles away. Their sauce doesn’t taste the same anymore
Getting a consistent “red” jalapeño at that scale requires a really experienced farmer. There they have the perfect set up of soil, sun, water and experience and I always thought that was the secret to huy fong’s success. there is a breaking point where you have the right amount of heat and sweetness in the pepper. On the big island of hawaii a gal has a food business “hula girl” the best red jalapeño sauce money can buy but it’s a real chore for her to produce it! She should hook up with that farmer!
No reasonably smart company should ever rely on a 'single supplier' for its products! Invite several suppliers to the table and get the best deal! That is business. Never get held to ransom by a single supplier!
@@senianns9522 hmmm if they were smart enough , they should start farming their own peppers , this brand has a long ass history , this lesson shows you your supplier will mess you up , lol
Red jalapenos are just over mature jalapenos. Even heirlooms will turn red. Hybrids aren't necessary. Jalapenos are easy to grow and are very forgiving. My dad and I use to grow them every year. We usually had about 20 plants. Several years we harvested 80-125 peppers per plant. We planted in April or May and as long as you picked them green the plant would produce until first frost. We have had plants clear into November. If you let the majority of fruit turn red, the plant thinks it is going to seed and will stop producing.
You know, now that you mentioned it, I have noticed that Huy Fong sriracha sauce has been absent from the grocery store shelves for a little while now. I can easily still find the "knock off" brands, but not the name brand. I don't buy it very often at all and use it sparingly, but I tend to go through a lot of soy sauce and grocery stores have a habit of often lumping "Asian foods" together.
They say there are usually 2 sides of a story in a disagreement. Watching this video it seem the reporters are more in favor of Underwood since one of the reporter stated she known the underwood owner for a long time. Would be interesting to get the Huy Fong's side. My family used to own a Chinese restaurant for about 25 years and we would buy boxes of these big Huy Fong Sriracha and put into our tables. There would be customer's that would just snatch the bottles and take them home. During that time each bottle cost us about $2 each. My daughter just brought 2 bottles of them at Amazon for $40. Wow.
@sknkwrksowner has a comment above with some inside baseball. Apparently a lot of Huy Fong's missteps came after the family and children took over, so it might be a Walmart situation where the founder of the company is a lot more competent (and compassionate) than the inheritor children.
FYI you can get Sriracha directly from Underwood Ranch. I recently bought their Dragon Sriracha which is same flavor as Huy Fong Sriracha. I also got their normal sriracha sauce & it's a bit too sweet, so definitely recommend the Dragon one.
Greed is what happened., They thought they could grow their own peppers and remove the need for other farmers.....yet realized it's really hard and they can't and now its too late. If i was one of their farmers I'd hike my prices 😅
It could be the farmer who's want more and asking too much, Huy phong food made a mistake by trust and relying his supply on one farmer to supply his need. when a company as big demand as him 2 or 3 different supplier is a must.
@@english9o99 I guess you didn't watch the video. Underwood Ranches had no problem supplying the peppers Huy Fong needed. Huy Fong decided to stop buying from him, and didn't tell him until he'd already grown the crop for that year. This isn't conjecture, that's what the courts found and why Huy Fong had to pay Underwood over $20 million. It was also covered in the video. The claim about Underwood not being able to supply their demand was a lie on Huy Fong's part. Diversifying and _adding_ additional suppliers would have been a good idea, but that's not what they did. They unilaterally broke ties with their main supplier. The problem is _entirely_ on Huy Fong's part, and appears to have been due to greed as OP said.
I’ve seen this firsthand while shopping over the last year or so; it’s hit or miss if I can find it at ANY of my local grocery stores!!! Now, if I see it stocked, I grab a bottle. We use it daily!
There are a few brands of Thai chilli sauce and tons of fish sauce in Thailand. Anyone who said it's crap, had never tasted one. Beside Sriracha is the name of Chilli sauce in Thailand produced in the same small provincial name. It's the longest chilli sauce brand in Thailand.
What a bummer. My favorite sauce! When Sriracha returned recently, for a hot minute, I heard it tasted sour and disappointing. I think Underwood's pepper process was a major part of the success.
Also, considering how the peppers are grown not only in California, but also in New Mexico and Mexico, (mostly Mexico), the variation in climates and growing conditions inevitably results in high variation between yields. The bottom line: It's most likely got a lot more likely that the flavor has more to do with the propietary blend of salt, sugar, vinegar, garlic, etc. than it's got to do with the actual peppers. It'd be the only way to keep the flavor consistent.
I remember when you could get this with your order of food for 5 bucks. They always had a shitload… it’s the best with any chicken dish! Got to love how far it’s come and being able to be a part of their support
To make it all even more mysterious: In the Netherlands I didn't observe a shortage at all. It is available here in different brands and at a reasonable price. Several brands use similar bottles that resemble the Huy Fong bottles shown in the video so I suspect they are all just Huy Fong under different names. I have 2 brands in the fridge at home now and I could easily exchange the lids. One of them looking suspiciously like the green lid you will be familiar with. One of the bottles states it was produced in Thailand. As far as Sambal Oelek is concerned, I would not be able to trace any of that back to Huy Fong considering it is a kind of traditional product here. Due to historical ties of the Netherlands wth Indonesia going back more than 400 years Asian domestic products have become everyday products here too. Sambal is produced in many variants by small companies and people at home in Indonesia so it is far from a Huy Fong original. In the Netherlands there are several factories producing it. Personally I like the taste of sambal bettter. Sriracha is spicier but has little taste beside that whereass sambal gives a bit of a richer broader taste experience.
I tried the Tabasco brand sriracha the other day, which was all they had on the shelf. It was actually pretty good, although the flavor was indeed different than Huy Fong. It tasted like classic Tabasco sauce, which was good, although not quite the same. I'm sorry to hear that this "shortage" was entirely man-made, an avoidable problem.
I had NO idea this was happening. My son saw some in my fridge a month ago and commented on it -- then my daughter yesterday. She asked "where did you get this Siracha" - She seemed pretty excited about it - I said I don't know I guess it has been in there a while, you can take it." Then today is the first time I hear there is a shortage. Neither kid had told me - I guess both my son and daughter assumed I knew and were both so excited about that bottle! LOL It is in the fridge now and not being used!
I just make my own hot sauce now, most people say it is even better when I combine Mango, chilies, garlic, cider vinegar, salt and palm sugar. I blend it and cook it for 30 minutes.
@@CordeliaWagner Try the "Blackout" variant of Flying Goose sriracha, you can find it online. 70+% pure chili content, love the stuff. Selfmade for sure is better, but you usually run out every so often, and sometimes a little convenience is great 🙃
I used to buy this brand back in the 90's before it became mainstream. This was my go to hot sauce I used to put on anything that needed a kick of heat (pizza, chili, sandwiches etc.). Their best sauce though, is not the Sriracha which they showed mostly throughout the video. Their best sauce was the "Chili Garlic Sauce". It didn't come in a squeeze bottle, but in a plastic jar. It had the consistency of a thick, chunky, paste. In this sauce they kept the seeds in, which made it hotter. Plus they did not use sugar to make it, like they did with the Sriracha. It had a hot, garlic, vinegary, pepper, flavor which appealed to me more. Their second best sauce was their "Sambal Oelek" which was basically the same as the Chili Garlic Sauce but without the garlic. The Sriracha is ok, but I don't care much for its sweet flavor.
I agree, but I prefer the regular chili paste. I would always eat that stuff with rice. Although the safety seal is very wonky and sometimes the particles of the glue or metal get into the paste when you first open it.
This story should be a case in point in textbooks. Don't do bad business. Huy Fong got greedy and breached their contract. In doing so, they irreparably damaged their long-time relationship with a reliable business partner which ended costing them more money than they originally thought they could save. I'm really disappointed in Huy Fong, especially as an Asian person. I was really rooting for them. I hope they learned their lesson to never ever swallow their words and be disloyal again.
It wasn't too many years ago that agricultural agreements were done with a simple handshake. Honesty and reputation were everything. Processors need supply, crops can deteriorate, growers need to harvest and work ground and loans need paying off. Many times, there wasn't time to wait for the paper to catch up. Had to be a level of trust. Take advantage and the word traveled fast. You would wake up on an island and not a good one.
You're a 100% correct, they don't teach stuff like this in business schools. Quite the opposite, it's all about increasing profits. There is little to no education about what can happen when you take that too far.
This story is completely one sided. Don't believe everything the mainstream news media says. Underwood Farms started jacking up their prices to Huy Fong, then demanded that Huy Fong open their books, so Underwood could gauge how much profit Huy Fong was making vs how much the farm was. This was when the relationship started downhill.
@@vandalsgarage It would not surprise me in the least. Seen so many great business relationships go bad where both parties were doing fantastic, but one or both got greedy. How have you come by this information?
Wow! I've had Huy Fong Sambal Oelek chili paste on my shopping list since the beginning of the year, but my local grocer has had only an empty spot on the shelf for it. I find that unusual because if they don't restock the stuff, they would put a different product in its place. This suggests that they may occasionally receive stock of the product, but then a local buyer such as a restaurant buys it all.
It's pronounced Sambal "oo-lek" like the Dutch word "ulek" for mortar and is, in my humble opinion, the very best chili sauce in the world. It is the only one that has no garlic and almost no salt. Just pure delicious chili pepper purée. edit: This wasn't really a direct reply to you, Big Mike, but I hit the wrong reply button. I guess we're both Sambal Oelek lovers, though. Let me know if you find another no garlic no salt chili paste! Cheers!
@@guygalt1102I've been with Sambal Oelek cooking since my first day in a Thai cooking class in 1992 and the Sriracha garlic tainted sauce has never once entered our kitchen. On rare occasions I'll try a few drops at a restaurant and just do not like it. In 2023 all the store shelves are empty and when I ask the manager I'm told it's never coming back. Worse yet is when you search these stores EVERY sauce includes garlic. Darn
@@ashashraa6579 'It has nothing to do with Dutch whatsoever'? Maybe you should read up on the recent history of Indonesia and its colonial connection with the Dutch........
I've tried multiple replacements, but none of them are even close. No A-B taste testing required. Maybe the Underwood version does the trick. A good laboratory could reverse engineer the HF formula, but apparently most of the brand X versions out there didn't even try. At this point, getting used to doing without.
Interesting story. I live in Thailand and use the chili and garlic sauce invented in the Thai city that gave the sauce it's name, Sriracha. It has a different flavor profile because it uses hotter Thai chilis and more garlic. I wonder if Huy Fong didn't try to copyright the name because it was already being used in another country for decades. Both sauce varieties are great and each fills it's own niche.
@@bsenka Compared to the US, it's incredibly cheap here as well as the other sauces used in cooking. None of the "Thai Kitchen" brand fish sauce and curry pastes. We now buy curry paste at the village store where it's freshly made.
Maybe he got it from Thailand, he was a refugee, maybe he was refugee in Thailand and got the idea. Many Vietnamese refugee in Thailand after Vietnam war. Sriracha is Thailand name.
David Tran said he was making Vietnamese chilli sauce..not the Thai version. He put the name on the bottle Tuong ot Sriracha (Tuong ot is Vnese word for chilli sauce).. along with English word "chilli sauce" and the Chinese word for it (just like many products in Asian grocery store). Becoz at that time he wanted to sell to Asian people but no one knows what Tuong ot is (and dificult to pronounce as well) so he used the word Sriracha becoz ppl already know what that is. Heres an account of him talking about it. m.th-cam.com/video/AWRZPLe0cUc/w-d-xo.html
I don't really care about Sriracha as much but I haven't been able to find 'Sambal Oelek' in forever, it came in a jar with a green lid and a gold label and was sooo good on pizza, I miss it...
Makes sense. I have been wondering why I don't see the OG Rooster, Sriracha bottles on the grocery store shelves anymore. There are 2-3 other brands now. Thanks for the vid.
@@hufficag I dunno, the very first time I ever had Sriracha was in 2017 at a local Thai restaurant, which is around the time their deal with that supplier soured, so I can’t attest to that
@@hufficag I noticed it could taste slightly different from bottle to bottle even back when they were still sourcing from Underwood farms. Any taste variations would be hard to discern due to that normal variability.
What happens when you 'think' you know it all. A business relationship that succeeds is one that fills the need and honors the promise, it's about loyal partners, when that is breached everyone loses. But going to look for Underwood Farms Sriracha sauce.
I can't find them anywhere this last year or longer. I have to get alternative brands which are not as good. But I'm glad I finally got an answer. I thought I was going crazy to why it's no longer around.
Sriracha sauce originated from Thailand. Since it s name after a district in Chonburi province (not far from Pattaya). The real Thailand 's Sriracha sauce is much better than those.
I thought I was crazy I knew it tasted different years ago now I know why. The Underwood jalapenos tasted so much better more flavorful unlike the new that tastes so sweet, I used go through a bottle in 2 weeks after they changed supplier its once in every 2 months. I hope because of this situation they go back to Underwood jalapenos. Greed is a disease always ruining something good.
Say it isn't so 😢 Just another reason to try Underwood's version, I guess. I've only tried Tabasco's so far, not a fan. Also tried a different version of the chili garlic/sambal olek stuff that was also disappointing. How hard is it to not make hot sauce sweet 🤢
Its not the peppers lol, the peppers are just added for the spice, just cause a company can “recreate” the ingredients does not mean its the same, it all depends on how it was made even the different temperature or how it was stirred can change the flavor.
I've bought many, many bottles of Huy Fong sriracha sauce over the years. After watching this, I've bought my last bottle. I'll be switching brands, possibly Underwood Ranches.
They announced there would be a shortage during the pandemic and indeed there was consistently an empty space on shelves. Then as soon as it appeared again people would buy it all up. Now once again that shelf space is barren. I will say though, that while I love Huy Fong as much as anyone else, there are other sriracha sauces out there that are just as good and for the truly industrious you can even make your own, so it's not a huge deal. I can get by until Huy Fong returns.
Siracha Sauce actually born in Thailand known as ศรีราชาพาณิชย์ or "Sriraja Panich" (Si Racha district of Chonburi in Thailand) but it was duplicated by Vietnam capitalist . the funniest is they use very familiar word into their label and distribute back to Thailand with more double price to origin. Unfortunately to the origin as they didn't patent before !
And quite a few of the idiotic Thais (like my cousins) like the Huy Fong version more than the Sriraja Panich only because it comes from the U.S. Many Thais still worship the "Made in U.S.A." label, just like the way Carabao sang about it back in the '80's.
This is just crazy. Both were/are doing GREAT, both are millionaires. The perfect relationship and basically the perfect business (regular consumption) , good for you and good for me and good for the community. But NO ~
i grew up with a family who is connected to this company, so we never saw a shortage, kinda sad to see people reselling it for insane prices when our store and restaurant saw zero difference
Go to an Asian , Indian Market or Grocery store. They have tons of it. Your shopping should include these vendors for two reasons. Different items and variety. Plus you keep them in business. It is so much fun to look at the myriad of products and unique items. If you are adventurous, curious or just wanting the basic staples. You will be rewarded. I also find that the staff are more than willing to help and guide you or answer questions. They are also focused on their store and want you to come back or tell your friends. I have done this around Pittsburgh for over 30 years. Big stores are great, but the specialty stores are the key to authentic epicurean delights, flavors and recipes for the home cook.
Exactly what I found out when I heard there was a shortage, no there isn’t, there’s only a shortage of American produced sriracha. Funny how the American public can trust any sriracha maker when huy fong were in Thailand but now they’re in the USA they won’t trust any other producers, hippocritical. Anyways, iam very happy with my Thailand copycat sriracha thank you.
even my local kroger has 3-5 brands of sriracha at any given time and the brands occasionally change. My local korean market has 5 different ones. Whole foods has a few different kinds. My local niche high end grocer has yet another few brands. There's no shortage except for one brand. On top of all that, once you try a few different brands of sriracha you realize that Huy Fong isn't even in the top 3 or 4 srirachas. Also, even between brands some batches have different flavors.
When the supply returns to the market, people start to develop new tastes with other hot sauce brands like Flying Duck Sriracha from Thailand and Tobasco Sriracha.
@@LCCreole *Yes, I tried Ox and Sky Valley (from Litehouse) if memory serves the Ox was good but a bit on the salty side which a little sugar would probably bring close to Huy Fong's. I also tried Sriraja Panich from Thailand which is easily available in the US. The best flavor and price combo imo is the Kroger version sold at their many brands of markets for around $3. Huy Fong made a bad move cutting ties with their main pepper supplier and driving customers to other brands.*
Jalapeños are tricky to grow? I planted them in the backyard of a rental house in Minnesota with no fertilizer. They grew like weeds. I couldn’t even give them all away before they went bad.
It's too bad Huy Fong played themselves like that, but I'll have to check out Underwood's version. I really haven't found a replacement that I like. Also miss the chili garlic and sambal olek sauces, guess this means I need to find replacements for those too. I miss having a mild hot sauce to use on everything.
Underwood's version is pretty good. I've tried multiple sriracha sauces and have not liked most of them. Underwood's has been my favorite so far. The only downside is that it's a bit pricey.
Many other hot sauces in Chinese supermarket. Thai or schezhuen are most spicy 🔥. I now only buy Mexico LINDO habanero sauce for a few drops,it's spicy 🔥
I learned of this shortage when I was looking for a bottle last year, and could only find other brands in my local markets that didn’t taste anywhere near the same. I eventually found one when a lady at a local Asian market pretended she didn’t have any and after I looked for several minutes, she relented and let me know that she had one box of them undercover behind the register and said she would sell me one if I didn’t tell anyone she had them. I ran out recently, and was ready to go out and see if she had more. Watching this, at first, I was proud of them for achieving their goal here in America. Then, the way they backstabbed their American business partner reminded me of the way the Chinese ran the company I used to work for when they bought it. Very, very shady which is why I quit. This video makes me want to try harder to find another brand that can copycat the flavor.
It’ll be interesting to see if the price to dismantle the relationship was worth it for HF in the long run. We may have seen a shortage, but if they were thinking more long term, they could be more profitable? In the short term, they screwed over the relationship and faced a set back. This was really good info to what’s been happening. I really appreciate the HF sauce but have had the Underwood sauce as well. They are both good!
Doubtful, they're seven years out from cutting off Underwood and their supply chain is still broken. They tried to save a few bucks on procurement and it bit them in the ass.
In the short run they lost years of profit in a lawsuit and couldn't make it back because they couldn't get enough supply. In the long run they might recover- it's still a quality product. Now that customers can't get Huy Fung's sauces, many will try competing sauces and decide they like others better. Those are customers lost for life. On the other hand, scarcity can also increase demand as people want what's hard to get, and they may be able to increase prices, calling it a premium product. My money is on losing customers overall though. There's also the loss of public goodwill due to greed that will hurt their reputation. Not to mention, future suppliers will know they don't honor purchase agreements and not invest too heavily in their jalapeno operations.
Maybe they recover but they already had so much market share and now they've opened the door, maybe for years, for another chili sauce to come in and take their place.
@@bkb04g they are similar, but not the same. I would say that the HF product has an iconic taste. Kinda like Heinz ketchup, lots of people do not want any other brand of ketchup.
I think both side ended up losing. If they had maintained good business relationship, both could have made a lot more money. Underwood may have won the legal battle, but he would have been more profitable for years as sole supplier for Huy Fong. All this over $1 million.
huy fong wanted Underwood to ran out of business after not buying the promised jalapeno crops in 2017. But they are too stupid to think they can get away with signed contracts. Very ameteurish and arrogant of the founders' kids to make this move. In the end underwood still thrives and becomes their biggest rival.
th-cam.com/video/AWRZPLe0cUc/w-d-xo.html so I believe in Mr. Tran- founder of the Sriracha- hes an old man who doesn't care about money so it was Underwood that kept raising prices to make more money out of pure greed. So my guess is Underwood announces huge Chili price hikes close to the harvest season, then Sriracha had to go find another sources to keep the price low enough. But they had to agree with the Underwood's deal as a backup plan. After they found another sources that can satisfy their production quota in 2017, Sriracha then backed off of the deal as a revenge for Underwood nonsense price hike after 30 years. However Underwood sued Sriracha and won. It was Underwood's greed and the amateur handling of the contract as a cause for Sriracha paid a huge settlements to Underwood.
@@AlanNguyenMD With the UCC the contracts don't even need to be signed. The fact they had a long history of working together alone basically ensured Huy Fong would lose. The UCC makes damn near every business relationship a contract, especially when you have worked together for years there's an expectation that will continue. Huy Fong's kids must have skipped their business law classes to think they could get out of this.
At 8:41 you can see Portulaca Oleracea (Purslane), a superfood often regarded as a weed. It is unique in multiple ways, including having the highest Omega-3 content of any plant and having developed a special combination of photosynthesis methods that make it uniquely suited to thrive under drought conditions. Great in salads and stews, where it acts as a natural thickener due to the high mucilage content.
sad (and surprisingly complicated) topic/issue. and unfortunately, i've tried many Sriracha-type sauces, and none came close so far to matching Huy Fong Foods' profile. must be the aging process, which none of the ones I've tried claimed to use. but not just the taste though, also the texture, and the color... RIP.
Yeah I understand it was what I always kept around...that garlic chili. It's hard to believe that they screwed their supplier as they could have raised their price a bit...they really had a brand loyalty for a good reason. It really did have a one of a kind taste.
Huy Fong is the stable for sriracha sauce. It’s not the same with other competitors sriracha. They can replicate all they want but it’s not the same spices. Huy Fong is the stable, like what Heinz is to ketchup. There is no comparison
Lose-lose for both Tran and Underwood, as some commercial users have already switched to other brands in the past few years. Like CNBC says, other sriracha makers are cautiously stepping in for the huge demand. Indeed, Huy Fong has also started supplying east coast, like 2 weeks ago, with very limited quantity. At such a delicate moment, we are finally invited to take a glance at the story
looks like underwood didn't lose. he won a huge amount in court depending on lawyer fees this would have to be pay as you go. lawyers don't take these cases on contingency . now he makes his own sauce as well as grows crops on the land.
I'd discovered other brands of sriracha that are just as good as Huy Fong so have been purchasing those in the interim. Hopefully everyone gets the kinks worked out and Huy Fong can come back to market reliably. I'm not such a mega-fan, though, that I'm willing to pay $70 for two bottles. Ridiculous. People's greed is something else. I'm actually more relieved to hear it's not a climate issue that's causing pepper shortages as was being claimed. But as they mentioned towards the end of the story, it's something to be aware of in the years to come.
Climate change is still part of the problem here. Underwood's farm is in a corner of the state less affected by CC, but the other growers that Huy Fong tried to buy from had trouble growing them b/c the rest of the state is more affected.
Honestly, this makes me a bit sad. They seemed to have a really close relationship. Me, I'd rather make slightly less in margin and keep a long term relationship like that.
So Underwood just agreed to clear out their other crops in favour of peppers without a watertight contract? If the contract was solid then Huy Fong just ignored it and proceeded to diversify their supply chain? Something doesn’t add up here. The story makes it seem like amateur mistakes for two large corporates but I’m sure there’s more to it.
Not every business operates the same way. I’ve seen multi million dollar deals close on hand shakes. Typically lawyers don’t like it and this is exactly why lol
@@karlwithak. You must work for Huy Fong lol. This video was eye opening in the dirty tactics of Huy Fong. They lost $23 million court case, and lost the appeal too.
What a coincidence. Today I went to two chain stores to replace my Garlic Chili sauce. I walked into two stores, combined I walked about an hour, at least, looking for one or the other, Needless to say, I found no Garlic chilli sauce, or Siracha, as a replacement . I thought the brand was out of business because of COVID aftermath, or climate change. It's good to know.
Love to have someone do a blind taste test to see if they can tell the difference between the different brands of siracha ,maybe America test kitchen would like to do the testing?
I have tried two other brands of Sriracha and no doubt about it, the flavor is radically different and not as good! If anyone else has had a positive experience with another brand, please share with us.
The shortages have inspired me to learn how to make my own mash and turn it into my own sauce that is just as good. Necessity is the mother of invention, corporate wars and stupidity is the end of businesses.
I work in retail, when I first heard of this back in 2020 I took everything our WHS had of the three sauces, think I had about 72 bottles in total. It lasted about 6 months. Now haven't had it in stock since then.
I lived near Rosemead by the original plant and the area burnt your throat much liken walking into ans authentic large Mexican grocery store with loads of peppers in the produce section.. I cant love without this sauce and have been nursing the last bottle for 2 months..
Yeh. That's what happening. Not liking it 1 bit. I've bought a case and I had a bottle left from the time the "shortage" happened and there is a color difference, it's lighter red than the previous version. Didn't consume any of the new version just sold them. Haven't seen any since. I've seen them online for 4Xs the retail price. Greed is everywhere.
Huy Fong Foods got greedy. That's why they're suffering. And Underwood Ranch is thriving with their own brand of Sriracha. Never screw over your supplier of key ingredients. Personally I've never used Sriracha and have no interest to. I'm sure it's a great product if it's being talked about in major news outlets.
Or it needs the mass media boost. Huy Fong sauces were sold purely by word of mouth, only becoming newsworthy during the 2013 factory odor incident and this legal clash with Underwood.
Good thing Sriracha is a super simple recipe and there's multiple company's that make it and it all tastes basically the same. That's why Huy Fong was never able to trademark it, because it's a basic chili sauce recipe that's been around for hundreds of years in several Asian countries. Tran didn't "invent" Sriracha, he just made it popular in America. I personally recommend Tobascos Sriracha "Thai Chili Sauce" anyways. I mean seriously, where do you think all that farmers (ripe Red) Jalapenos are going? Because they are clearly still growing right behind him. Hint, other brands making the same exact thing.
Huy Fong has always been my favorite, but after not finding it on shelves, I came across and like Texas Pete's Sriracha-Cha! sauce. I'll probably go back to Huy Fong if it becomes readily available again, but Sriracha-Cha! will definitely tide me over until that time. 🙂
"What goes around, comes around." The name "Sriracha Sauce" was coined roughly 70-80 years ago in Thailand when the recipe was first created. There's a rural Thai province named "Sriracha" where you can visit the original manufacturing facility. Hua Fong adapted this recipe, swapping out the original blend of bird's eye chili and spur chili with jalapeños, likely because they are more common in North America. They marketed their product as the "original Sriracha," despite Thais enjoying the sauce long before their business started. Huy Fong's exclusive presence in the US may convey originality to North American consumers who may not be acquainted with the sauce's Thai origins. Nonetheless, some argue they should pay more homage to the sauce's Thai heritage. The true original Sriracha sauce may have some catching up to do in terms of marketing and customer loyalty, but you can often find it at Asian grocery stores. In my opinion, Huy Fong's business approach may explain some of their current challenges and their inevitable downfall.
I've read that the now-elderly founder has passed the management of the company to his children and family, who cut off their long-time supplier of jalapenos for cheaper sources in Mexico. Then the drought and production issues came up in Mexico leaving the company stranded with no supplies.
At Walmart supermarket, they now have several sriracha sauces by various brands. This type of appropriation is very common in food products. It's best to register the trademark or name if possible.
Actually, it's a subdistrict of Chonburi province, a place I love. But Tran did the marketing, fair or not, so his sauce is the 'red standard'...I prefer the Thai stuff, myself...
To explain the “legal battle” basically… Huy Fong would pay the Pepper Farm in advance to cover the cost of production for that year. Somehow Huy Fong mistakenly over payed them $1.46 million(according to Huy Fong). The pepper farm refused to send that money back and that’s when the legal battle started. It wasn’t about loyalty it’s about the principle of someone feeling like they’re being taking advantage of by the other.
Here is how i see this played out; as a new from college kid of owners finally got to take over the business and said -You know that farmer that we get peppers from? -You mean the one who has been working with us for decades, grows the exact peppers we need for our special brands sauce and delivers on time? That farmer? -Yea, well F that farmer, they are just red jalapeños, we can source them from somewhere else and save a bunch of money! -Hello Karma.
A few weeks ago while doing my turn of grocery shopping i happen to glance over the hot sauce aisle, I looked at Huy Food brand Siracha and said out loud wow $10?!, let me try something else. I grabbed a random much lesser cost Siracha, not knowing about Underwood Farms until this video. I purchased the underwood brand and let me tell you something, this Siracha is way better in terms of flavor, taste and texture. I am now an Underwood Siracha buyer. My advice, go out of your comfort zone, try new sauce and experiment see what you like, why pay $10 for catchup? Never again...
I was recently able to get a different brand Sriracha at my local grocery and I was kind of skeptical about how the taste would differ from what I was used to but surprisingly it tastes just the same as Huey Fong's and was only $6 a bottle.
My experience was the opposite, all of the imitation Sriracha I've bought tasted off. Even the Huy Fong's own Sriracha that I was able to buy recently no longer tastes like it used to.
We love visiting Underwood Farms at least once a month, they have two pick your own farms in Moorpark and Somis. Getting to know the seasonal crops and cutting our own food really teaches the kids to be more appreciative of what it takes to get food onto their plate. The staff has always been very friendly and helpful, and if they carry these same morals and standards into their wholesale business then Huy Fong Foods were idiots for cutting ties.
This was a Huy Fong hit piece. The fact Underwood made his own Srirachi tells me he isn’t 100% a good guy. I’m sure it’s a little bit of both doing each other dirty.
@@majorlazor5058 There’s at least 4 other companies that I see from grocery shelves that make Sriracha, since it’s not an invention of Huy Fong Foods I don’t see an issue. And from what I’ve read about the law suit there was bad faith on the part of HF first.
@@yvonne3582 Fong can’t be called greedy for looking for another grower and Underwood can’t be seen as “just doing what other people are doing”… You can’t have it both ways.
@@majorlazor5058 I never called HF greedy, you can look for a better, cheaper, or more efficient supplier it is after all a free market. But to break a contract that involves months of supplies and labor planting and maintenance of crops was wrong, and they were made to pay for it. As I said it’s a free market anyone with the knowledge and equipment can technically make a Sriracha sauce, you can’t fault any of the companies for wanting to profit from the high demand. It’s a sauce that can be made by anyone at home as well, should we all not do it because Huy Fong holds the majority of the market?
The Huy Fong's kid got their business and MBA degree. They tried to find the cheapest supplier of pepper. However, the MBA school did not teach them the meaning of loyalty.
It would've been fine if they had been honest that they needed a cheaper supplier and just tapered down the amount purchased from Underwood.
Burning your sole supplier with a proven record of growth, delivery and quality over a few million dollars and to save pennies per bottle isn't smart business. The cost of reputation and disruptions in supply have ended their record profits. Plus they are a private business, they don't need to chase quarterly earnings for shareholders. His son is just an idiot.
@@chinogambino9375 100%
Its strange mba don't include goodwill build over the years in their programs. 😂😂
@@chinogambino9375 When maximizing next quarter's profits is the only thing driving your decision making your business will decline. His son's poor management also opened the market for competition. I found a sriracha I like better, the Trader Joe's one, and I never would have even considered trying different brands but I was forced to due to the self-inflicted shortage.
Walmart did a deal like this with pickles. finally the producer/grower got tired of being lowballed by Walmart about his prices. He secretly started contracting all the cucumber production he could and when he declined to meet Walmarts production price they cut him off. What they didn't count on was no other company could ramp up production because now one guy held all the cucumber production for 3-5 year and wouldn't sell to anyone working with Walmart. Finally Walmart caved but it cost them dearly. And they deserve it.
Walmart alienates a lot of suppliers. I recall getting various goodies at my nearest Walmart at bargain prices but sooner or later they disappear when Walmart squeezes too hard.
Wallmart has exclusivity contracts but they don't buy imperfect produce, if they're going to have exclusivity they should buy everything from the producer and the imperfect veggies could be chopped up for the frozen food section, pickles or used as ingredients in Walmart branded foods. There is an enormous amount of rejected food ending up in landfills every year rejected for reasons such as lack of symmetry in carrots or deformity in pumpkins.
@@HepCatJack and yet somehow, the majority of produce I've ever gotten from walmart has tasted absolutely terrible. They look normal, but they are not. I'd rather pay more and go elsewhere.
@@gonzarellious6102 this could be GMO produce engineered to withstand transportation to far away places at the cost of taste.
Here in Canada they bragged that Canadians are gobbling up the GMO salmon at record pace, but then admit that its sold unmarked at mystery stores. I dont eat salmon anymore. When you have things like Epicyte, you know they not only just dont care, but they just dont want you. @@HepCatJack
I had a bunch of bottles in the cupboard that I forgot about. After hearing of the shortage, I started using it. I forgot how good the stuff is. It goes with pizza, tortilla chips with hummus, tostadas, or just about anything.
That's was a smooth yet evil flex.
Placebo. You feel like you are superior because others can't get it.
Sell it online. They're going for more than slightly tastier pizza
Vanilla Ice cream.
i only had 2 different brands of Sriracha, the one in this video, and Yellowbird, and i can't imagine any other Sriracha better than Yellowbird...Pricier...Whole foods has bigger bottles at a better price than the normally small bottles, though it's still not a huge bottle.....
I'm more impressed you got a grocery store to not only answer a phone, but also assist you in finding out whether or not they had a product.
My dad tried growing Jalapeño Peppers in his garden and they came out tasting like bell peppers, no heat at all.
He worked with a guy who made his own hot sauce (it was really really good btw) and he asked how much water my dad gave them. Turns out you have to stress the plants, giving them just enough water to keep them alive. The more water you give them beyond what they need to survive the lass hot they will me.
Dad's next batch were very hot.
oh, no wonder my home grown peppers were so hot one year. The soil I used drained too well and I realized it late, and even a nibble of the peppers was lava hot.
Same goes for wine, have to stress the vine for the best results. Same goes for Cannabis, same goes for humans too.
Drying the peppers out after harvest works to increase the hotness also.
Too much water makes a mild pepper, less water, the hotter the pepper. Lived in New Mexico for years and found out the hard way.
He probably learned that from someone who didn't pronounce it hala pain yo
Asian American here. I’m with the farmer. It’s so uncharacteristic of the founder to do shady business like he did on this one and I believe his relatives who’s helping him run the business are the ones behind it. He’s never the greedy kind from interviews I’ve seen of him. He’s had a GREAT relationship with his supplier for a long time which helped grew his business tremendously. Why would you suddenly risk losing this relationship? Loyalty is very important and rare in business and what helps you grow your business but in only takes one act of GREED to destroy it. Most will never get it back ever again because they will always be wary of you and have trust issues with you.
yeah, no doubt the old man was an awesome guy
maybe his kids went to business school and wanted to "vertically integrate" or something
That would be a great idea, but it seems like there was an internal conflict within the company, because they signed contracts with the farmer but then later tried to back out of it, get other suppliers and finally tried to steal the farm essentially. Someone in his company or family fought for a change in direction, but didn't think it through thoroughly.
It seems like they almost killed the goose that laid golden eggs.
This kind of reminds me of the disappearance of Rye-Crisp.
Bingo, you are right. This is due to HIS children born and raised in the USA.
Good. Im not buying this garbage again.
They are using xanthan gum aka poop of a pathogenic bacteria as a thickener 😱
There is a part of the story where it mentioned the farmer overcharge HF for $1.5 million. That might have been the cause of HF wanting to cancel the contract.
I live in the city next to Irwindale (where the processing plant is), and my wife works in that city. I think it was in 2013, the owner had a big celebration and invited the public to come in and see the plant. Every person on the tour got a medium sized bottle of siracha, siracha ice cream, got to see dragon dancers, take handfuls of free jalepeno peppers, and meet the founder and take pictures with him. I have a picture of him with my family. He had an important message for all of us... America was truly the land of opportunity and he was very greatful to this country. I dont know why things got bad, but he seemed to be a great guy.
At least the owner is an innovative , industrious entrepreneur who brought economy and livelihood to the community. We need people like him in America, not those who whine whine whine. It’s not after short supply before we realized how much we missed the yummy sauce.
He got greedy. Plain and simple. It's why he failed.
@@WiLDCHiLD. still in business, didn't fail, just ruined his profits for years
@@WiLDCHiLD. Why did Underwood farm sold their crops per acre and not per lb⁉️🙄😒🤔 It sounded fishy and it would be a rip off if the farm didn't produce as much as they should‼️ 😰🤬
Talk about "greedy" almost all businesses are greedy for profit, isn't it ⁉️ 🙄🤔
@@WiLDCHiLD. may have been the kid(s) or the next gen who's taking over the business. It has not failed yet but if they keep at it, consumers will adjust their tastebud to other hot sauce and completely forget and/or lose interest in their sauce. Many don't mind getting gouged but I for one refuse to pay $10 for a bottle of Huy Fong Sriracha which is the current market price.
wow.. definitely many lessons about loyalty and relationships to be learned from this story
i remember seeing a video of a master sushi chef, and a part i never forgot was the loyalty and honor system between the chef and the supplier. the chef would never ask or haggle on the price of the fish or cut him out by going to other vendors, while the vendor or supplier would only supply his best fish and if the fish was not of good quality he would not sell the chef the fish, as his reputation was attached to the fish as well. as a result the chef would only be supplied with the best ingredients which was a pain staking task for the vendor to gather. loosing a vendor to a master sushi chef is a massive blow.
huy fong made a massive blunder by under cutting the supplier who dedicated himself to making a whole supply chain system to give them the best peppers. when it comes to book keeping the supplier has to sell all his perishable goods. if the buyer decides to cut out the supplier right as he has dedicated himself to gathering/growing those supplies. sure the buyer might save a few pennies, but it royally screws over the supplier as he has a bunch of goods that has to be liquidated or they will expire.
Sriracha is gross and people that like it have no taste, like women that buy Stanley cups. Or something like that.
the only thing harder to find than the sauce, is actual info about what's been happening. thank you.
Sriracha is gross and needs sugar? Ew.
@@boodge. baseddd
Huy Fong should have honored their end of the agreement. I can't imagine having a thousand acres of chiles and suddenly no buyer. Then to find out they allowed you to grow them, knowing full well that they had no intention of taking delivery, would be grounds for war. There are places where if you do a neighbor like that, you'll wish you had sold out and moved. You would have to drive 2 towns over to get a cup of coffee.
Huy Fong is a study in greed and stupidity. They will be used as bad examples for decades to come.
Vietnamese people be like that lol. They’re like the low class Asian
That's what an mba gets you
Lol whatchu gonna do about it 😂🤣
@@The_Quaalude Not buy Huy Fong ever again. I've already found even better.
It's important to note that the city of Irwindale INVITED the company to build the new plant there, and the residents & farmers celebrated the new jobs! Then the city shut the plant down because of the smell of crushed peppers. That's a pretty 🍆move!
Obviiously this is a technology question. You can precess chilli without having the neighbourhood cry if a wind start to blow...
I've been literally inside the factory during production and the smell isn't even that bad! Ridiculous. The smell is 100% worth the jobs. There are actual dangerous chemicals in the air/water that California should be worrying about instead of taking away jobs.
@@kashmirhaweed indoor farmers use carbon filters
Racist folks didn’t want the company in their town
That's CA..
So much respect lost for Huy Fong. I’m 100% with the farmer.
never ever mess with your suppliers! You would think this is 101 but many businesses bizarrely doesn’t understand this rule. (especially small businesses). When the going gets bad, it is easiest to stop paying your suppliers as a stop gap measure. But this almost ensures the start of a death spiral.
i remember seeing a video of a master sushi chef, and a part i never forgot was the loyalty and honor system between the chef and the supplier. the chef would never ask or haggle on the price of the fish or cut him out by going to other vendors, while the vendor or supplier would only supply his best fish and if the fish was not of good quality he would not sell the chef the fish, as his reputation was attached to the fish as well. as a result the chef would only be supplied with the best ingredients which was a pain staking task for the vendor to gather. loosing a vendor to a master sushi chef is a massive blow.
huy fong made a massive blunder by under cutting the supplier who dedicated himself to making a whole supply chain system to give them the best peppers. when it comes to book keeping the supplier has to sell all his perishable goods. if the buyer decides to cut out the supplier right as he has dedicated himself to gathering/growing those supplies. sure the buyer might save a few pennies, but it royally screws over the supplier as he has a bunch of goods that has to be liquidated or they will expire.
I worked for the company that produced most of the jalapeño seed that Underwood grew and remember when the lawsuit happened. We produced a lot of seed for them.
Producing a lot of seed? That's what she said
What kind of peppers are they?
What company? I’d love to buy some of those jalapeño seeds.
@@L-h8py jalapeno. It's mentioned multiple times in the video.
Thanks. I thought theres a certain type of jalapeños seeds.
Story doesn't really add up. Don't think Huy Fong was money hungry enough to destroy relations with his long time supplier. He never patented his recipe. He never advertised his product. He never chased people down for copying his product. He never went after merchandising of his product. He always believed in seeing the ingredients going into his product; old school hard-worker and ethics kind of guy. Why would a basically retired immigrant, who built his fame through slow word-of-mouth... suddenly radically try to expand using drones for espionage??? Probably children taking over got involved.
It's the children. If history tells us anything is that family businesses rarely persists passed the children or grand children.
I agree. The story doesn't add up and sounds biased. Back in 2013, I used to sell phone cases with Sriracha logos on them. Huy fong emailed me and said they didn't care if we did it without their permission, they just wanted some free phone cases for some of the employees. I gladly sent them a big box of phone cases for free. They were super kind.
@@teddyruxpin3811 That was smart of them not to try to stop you. Free advertising for them. You still should have asked for permission first though.
@@teddyruxpin3811in 2013 it was ran by the founder. He then has his kids run it now. They’re idiots
This is CNBC. They release stories not for the sake of journalism, but for the sake of corporate investors. In this case, someone is paying them to promote Underwood Ranches. The info in the story may or may not be true.
You can find sriracha hot sauce anywhere. Huy Fong brand is the one you have a hard time finding cause they now use a different suppliers, then from the farm that use to supply them that was located 50 miles away. Their sauce doesn’t taste the same anymore
Yeah, but none of the other brands taste like the Huy Fong, either ... big difference in taste
@@erictriplett33The problem is Huy Fong doesn't taste the way it used to. My current bottle is my last one. It's as the kids say mid....
Getting a consistent “red” jalapeño at that scale requires a really experienced farmer. There they have the perfect set up of soil, sun, water and experience and I always thought that was the secret to huy fong’s success. there is a breaking point where you have the right amount of heat and sweetness in the pepper. On the big island of hawaii a gal has a food business “hula girl” the best red jalapeño sauce money can buy but it’s a real chore for her to produce it! She should hook up with that farmer!
No reasonably smart company should ever rely on a 'single supplier' for its products! Invite several suppliers to the table and get the best deal! That is business. Never get held to ransom by a single supplier!
Hook up? 😳
@@kevinfernandez9999 That term used to mean something more innocent
@@senianns9522 hmmm if they were smart enough , they should start farming their own peppers , this brand has a long ass history , this lesson shows you your supplier will mess you up , lol
Red jalapenos are just over mature jalapenos. Even heirlooms will turn red. Hybrids aren't necessary. Jalapenos are easy to grow and are very forgiving. My dad and I use to grow them every year. We usually had about 20 plants. Several years we harvested 80-125 peppers per plant. We planted in April or May and as long as you picked them green the plant would produce until first frost. We have had plants clear into November. If you let the majority of fruit turn red, the plant thinks it is going to seed and will stop producing.
You know, now that you mentioned it, I have noticed that Huy Fong sriracha sauce has been absent from the grocery store shelves for a little while now. I can easily still find the "knock off" brands, but not the name brand. I don't buy it very often at all and use it sparingly, but I tend to go through a lot of soy sauce and grocery stores have a habit of often lumping "Asian foods" together.
same, first time a youtube suggestions clears a real mystery in my daily life
Thai companies are reclaiming the Sriracha names by exporting Huy Fong's knockoff. lol
story really warms my heart
It also didnt taste the same at all, when they broke the deal with Undderwood.. it didnt taste the same at all
Anyone try underwoods own siracha?
They say there are usually 2 sides of a story in a disagreement. Watching this video it seem the reporters are more in favor of Underwood since one of the reporter stated she known the underwood owner for a long time.
Would be interesting to get the Huy Fong's side.
My family used to own a Chinese restaurant for about 25 years and we would buy boxes of these big Huy Fong Sriracha and put into our tables. There would be customer's that would just snatch the bottles and take them home. During that time each bottle cost us about $2 each. My daughter just brought 2 bottles of them at Amazon for $40. Wow.
Correct, but they also did say that Huy Fong declined to comment...so they kinda left themselves open to this.
@@RealDarkBlade you hear that from CNBC not from HF
You can read the court decisions online
@@spicydogsoup legally they cant really say that if it were a lie.
@sknkwrksowner has a comment above with some inside baseball. Apparently a lot of Huy Fong's missteps came after the family and children took over, so it might be a Walmart situation where the founder of the company is a lot more competent (and compassionate) than the inheritor children.
FYI you can get Sriracha directly from Underwood Ranch. I recently bought their Dragon Sriracha which is same flavor as Huy Fong Sriracha. I also got their normal sriracha sauce & it's a bit too sweet, so definitely recommend the Dragon one.
NICE!
thank you!
Thanks. I might have to try it. I’m on my last bottle of Huy fong.
not in canada :(
Sold out on Amazon and direct and everywhere else.
Greed is what happened., They thought they could grow their own peppers and remove the need for other farmers.....yet realized it's really hard and they can't and now its too late. If i was one of their farmers I'd hike my prices 😅
Every step along the supply chain is a science
Everyone is fighting for their cut, my educated guess
That would my guess too.
It could be the farmer who's want more and asking too much, Huy phong food made a mistake by trust and relying his supply on one farmer to supply his need. when a company as big demand as him 2 or 3 different supplier is a must.
@@english9o99 I guess you didn't watch the video.
Underwood Ranches had no problem supplying the peppers Huy Fong needed. Huy Fong decided to stop buying from him, and didn't tell him until he'd already grown the crop for that year. This isn't conjecture, that's what the courts found and why Huy Fong had to pay Underwood over $20 million. It was also covered in the video. The claim about Underwood not being able to supply their demand was a lie on Huy Fong's part. Diversifying and _adding_ additional suppliers would have been a good idea, but that's not what they did. They unilaterally broke ties with their main supplier.
The problem is _entirely_ on Huy Fong's part, and appears to have been due to greed as OP said.
Even before watching the video I had a hunch greed is involved.
I’ve seen this firsthand while shopping over the last year or so; it’s hit or miss if I can find it at ANY of my local grocery stores!!! Now, if I see it stocked, I grab a bottle. We use it daily!
Same!
Stop relying on ''stocked'' food. Make yer own
You can still get the Thai version of it at your local Chinatown supermarket. The Tiger brand Siracha is similar in taste to Huy Fong's.
not quite the same we have both in our cupboard here in Australia just tested them one is lighter in colour and a little sweeter.( the tiger brand )
Thai fish source and Thai hot source is crap compared to Vietnamese version. They’re just imitators that surely cost less but no way taste the same
There are a few brands of Thai chilli sauce and tons of fish sauce in Thailand.
Anyone who said it's crap, had never tasted one.
Beside Sriracha is the name of Chilli sauce in Thailand produced in the same small provincial name. It's the longest chilli sauce brand in Thailand.
@@lehoang15tuoi Red chili hot sauce from Thailand is not imitator, Sriracha is a Thai name.
That's helpful, thank you!
What a bummer. My favorite sauce! When Sriracha returned recently, for a hot minute, I heard it tasted sour and disappointing. I think Underwood's pepper process was a major part of the success.
Also, considering how the peppers are grown not only in California, but also in New Mexico and Mexico, (mostly Mexico), the variation in climates and growing conditions inevitably results in high variation between yields.
The bottom line: It's most likely got a lot more likely that the flavor has more to do with the propietary blend of salt, sugar, vinegar, garlic, etc. than it's got to do with the actual peppers. It'd be the only way to keep the flavor consistent.
I remember when you could get this with your order of food for 5 bucks. They always had a shitload… it’s the best with any chicken dish! Got to love how far it’s come and being able to be a part of their support
To make it all even more mysterious: In the Netherlands I didn't observe a shortage at all. It is available here in different brands and at a reasonable price. Several brands use similar bottles that resemble the Huy Fong bottles shown in the video so I suspect they are all just Huy Fong under different names. I have 2 brands in the fridge at home now and I could easily exchange the lids. One of them looking suspiciously like the green lid you will be familiar with. One of the bottles states it was produced in Thailand.
As far as Sambal Oelek is concerned, I would not be able to trace any of that back to Huy Fong considering it is a kind of traditional product here. Due to historical ties of the Netherlands wth Indonesia going back more than 400 years Asian domestic products have become everyday products here too. Sambal is produced in many variants by small companies and people at home in Indonesia so it is far from a Huy Fong original. In the Netherlands there are several factories producing it.
Personally I like the taste of sambal bettter. Sriracha is spicier but has little taste beside that whereass sambal gives a bit of a richer broader taste experience.
I hope that Sriracha comes back soon, I love using it in (almost) everything
99 ranch has some from Thailand for $4.99 does the trick may not be the brand but its good enough.
Meanwhile you can just add a log of garlic to a regular hot sauce.
@@ricnyc2759 yep but I am to lazy:)
The Underwood farms version tastes identical btw.
did you not watch the video??
I tried the Tabasco brand sriracha the other day, which was all they had on the shelf. It was actually pretty good, although the flavor was indeed different than Huy Fong. It tasted like classic Tabasco sauce, which was good, although not quite the same.
I'm sorry to hear that this "shortage" was entirely man-made, an avoidable problem.
I had it too it's got less red jalapenos for sure. Ok in a pinch but wish it was hotter
Try Texas Pete’s Siracha. It’s the best of the three imo.
It's nasty! Taste nothing like sirancha! Had to pay $10 for the real stuff
@@maximusprimus827 thanks for the tip, I'll try it.
Just buy ketchup. That's what Sriracha tastes like. Lol
I had NO idea this was happening. My son saw some in my fridge a month ago and commented on it -- then my daughter yesterday. She asked "where did you get this Siracha" - She seemed pretty excited about it - I said I don't know I guess it has been in there a while, you can take it." Then today is the first time I hear there is a shortage. Neither kid had told me - I guess both my son and daughter assumed I knew and were both so excited about that bottle! LOL It is in the fridge now and not being used!
I just make my own hot sauce now, most people say it is even better when I combine Mango, chilies, garlic, cider vinegar, salt and palm sugar. I blend it and cook it for 30 minutes.
The Siracha I can buy in Germany has a weird chemical taste. And ingredients I can't pronounce. Nope.
Selfmade is so much better!
@@CordeliaWagner Try the "Blackout" variant of Flying Goose sriracha, you can find it online.
70+% pure chili content, love the stuff.
Selfmade for sure is better, but you usually run out every so often, and sometimes a little convenience is great 🙃
Thanks for the tip. I'm definitely gonna try this recipe.
@@CordeliaWagnermeanwhile how many people mispronounce Sriracha and jalapeno?
I used to buy this brand back in the 90's before it became mainstream. This was my go to hot sauce I used to put on anything that needed a kick of heat (pizza, chili, sandwiches etc.). Their best sauce though, is not the Sriracha which they showed mostly throughout the video. Their best sauce was the "Chili Garlic Sauce". It didn't come in a squeeze bottle, but in a plastic jar. It had the consistency of a thick, chunky, paste. In this sauce they kept the seeds in, which made it hotter. Plus they did not use sugar to make it, like they did with the Sriracha. It had a hot, garlic, vinegary, pepper, flavor which appealed to me more. Their second best sauce was their "Sambal Oelek" which was basically the same as the Chili Garlic Sauce but without the garlic. The Sriracha is ok, but I don't care much for its sweet flavor.
Chili Garlic is the best, and I'm sadder about its shortage than I am over Sriracha.
Wait, I do see it in the video though xD
John Lesica- Have you tried the Underwood Farms version of sriracha?
I agree, but I prefer the regular chili paste. I would always eat that stuff with rice. Although the safety seal is very wonky and sometimes the particles of the glue or metal get into the paste when you first open it.
@Isabella-tf1qc It's *that* good!?
This story should be a case in point in textbooks. Don't do bad business. Huy Fong got greedy and breached their contract. In doing so, they irreparably damaged their long-time relationship with a reliable business partner which ended costing them more money than they originally thought they could save. I'm really disappointed in Huy Fong, especially as an Asian person. I was really rooting for them. I hope they learned their lesson to never ever swallow their words and be disloyal again.
Bzzzt, try again kid.
It wasn't too many years ago that agricultural agreements were done with a simple handshake. Honesty and reputation were everything. Processors need supply, crops can deteriorate, growers need to harvest and work ground and loans need paying off. Many times, there wasn't time to wait for the paper to catch up. Had to be a level of trust. Take advantage and the word traveled fast. You would wake up on an island and not a good one.
You're a 100% correct, they don't teach stuff like this in business schools. Quite the opposite, it's all about increasing profits. There is little to no education about what can happen when you take that too far.
This story is completely one sided. Don't believe everything the mainstream news media says. Underwood Farms started jacking up their prices to Huy Fong, then demanded that Huy Fong open their books, so Underwood could gauge how much profit Huy Fong was making vs how much the farm was. This was when the relationship started downhill.
@@vandalsgarage It would not surprise me in the least. Seen so many great business relationships go bad where both parties were doing fantastic, but one or both got greedy. How have you come by this information?
Thank you for this story ... I had no idea. Now I do. UR, you've got a new customer for life, you did the right thing.
Wow! I've had Huy Fong Sambal Oelek chili paste on my shopping list since the beginning of the year, but my local grocer has had only an empty spot on the shelf for it. I find that unusual because if they don't restock the stuff, they would put a different product in its place. This suggests that they may occasionally receive stock of the product, but then a local buyer such as a restaurant buys it all.
It's pronounced Sambal "oo-lek" like the Dutch word "ulek" for mortar and is, in my humble opinion, the very best chili sauce in the world. It is the only one that has no garlic and almost no salt. Just pure delicious chili pepper purée.
edit: This wasn't really a direct reply to you, Big Mike, but I hit the wrong reply button. I guess we're both Sambal Oelek lovers, though. Let me know if you find another no garlic no salt chili paste! Cheers!
@@guygalt1102 Sambal oelek is from Indonesia. It has nothing to do with Dutch whatsoever.
Dutch steal sambal olek from indo bruh
@@guygalt1102I've been with Sambal Oelek cooking since my first day in a Thai cooking class in 1992 and the Sriracha garlic tainted sauce has never once entered our kitchen. On rare occasions I'll try a few drops at a restaurant and just do not like it. In 2023 all the store shelves are empty and when I ask the manager I'm told it's never coming back. Worse yet is when you search these stores EVERY sauce includes garlic. Darn
@@ashashraa6579
'It has nothing to do with Dutch whatsoever'? Maybe you should read up on the recent history of Indonesia and its colonial connection with the Dutch........
I've tried multiple replacements, but none of them are even close. No A-B taste testing required. Maybe the Underwood version does the trick. A good laboratory could reverse engineer the HF formula, but apparently most of the brand X versions out there didn't even try. At this point, getting used to doing without.
Interesting story. I live in Thailand and use the chili and garlic sauce invented in the Thai city that gave the sauce it's name, Sriracha. It has a different flavor profile because it uses hotter Thai chilis and more garlic. I wonder if Huy Fong didn't try to copyright the name because it was already being used in another country for decades. Both sauce varieties are great and each fills it's own niche.
Sriracha is a distric in Thailand.
Sriracha sauce have been in Thailand more than 60 years.
I have noticed that the imported Thai Sriracha tastes much better. Confusingly, it's usually cheaper too.
@@bsenka Compared to the US, it's incredibly cheap here as well as the other sauces used in cooking. None of the "Thai Kitchen" brand fish sauce and curry pastes. We now buy curry paste at the village store where it's freshly made.
Maybe he got it from Thailand, he was a refugee, maybe he was refugee in Thailand and got the idea. Many Vietnamese refugee in Thailand after Vietnam war. Sriracha is Thailand name.
David Tran said he was making Vietnamese chilli sauce..not the Thai version. He put the name on the bottle Tuong ot Sriracha (Tuong ot is Vnese word for chilli sauce).. along with English word "chilli sauce" and the Chinese word for it (just like many products in Asian grocery store). Becoz at that time he wanted to sell to Asian people but no one knows what Tuong ot is (and dificult to pronounce as well) so he used the word Sriracha becoz ppl already know what that is.
Heres an account of him talking about it.
m.th-cam.com/video/AWRZPLe0cUc/w-d-xo.html
I don't really care about Sriracha as much but I haven't been able to find 'Sambal Oelek' in forever, it came in a jar with a green lid and a gold label and was sooo good on pizza, I miss it...
Recently most San Diego stores were stocked up. Some had a 2 limit and surprisingly no price gouging either
What stores in San Diego?
No such thing as gouging
Yeah I can't find it in SD
Makes sense. I have been wondering why I don't see the OG Rooster, Sriracha bottles on the grocery store shelves anymore. There are 2-3 other brands now. Thanks for the vid.
This is a crisis for me personally cuz I love sriracha and Huy Fong is the best one. 😢
Have you noticed a change in taste since they switched to other suppliers? People in comments saying the peppers tasted better before
Nope, I'm switching to Underwood Farms Sriracha. Just on principal.
@@hufficag I dunno, the very first time I ever had Sriracha was in 2017 at a local Thai restaurant, which is around the time their deal with that supplier soured, so I can’t attest to that
@@hufficag I noticed it could taste slightly different from bottle to bottle even back when they were still sourcing from Underwood farms. Any taste variations would be hard to discern due to that normal variability.
Try Mexico LINDO habanero sauce, only need a few drops in a small bottle, just perfect for me.
What happens when you 'think' you know it all. A business relationship that succeeds is one that fills the need and honors the promise, it's about loyal partners, when that is breached everyone loses. But going to look for Underwood Farms Sriracha sauce.
I can't find them anywhere this last year or longer. I have to get alternative brands which are not as good. But I'm glad I finally got an answer. I thought I was going crazy to why it's no longer around.
Sriracha sauce originated from Thailand. Since it s name after a district in Chonburi province (not far from Pattaya). The real Thailand 's Sriracha sauce is much better than those.
I thought I was crazy I knew it tasted different years ago now I know why. The Underwood jalapenos tasted so much better more flavorful unlike the new that tastes so sweet, I used go through a bottle in 2 weeks after they changed supplier its once in every 2 months. I hope because of this situation they go back to Underwood jalapenos. Greed is a disease always ruining something good.
No real hot sauce in US market 🤏 All r just tons of salt 🧂 & vinegar. 🤢🤢🤮
Say it isn't so 😢 Just another reason to try Underwood's version, I guess. I've only tried Tabasco's so far, not a fan. Also tried a different version of the chili garlic/sambal olek stuff that was also disappointing. How hard is it to not make hot sauce sweet 🤢
@@duran9664that’s a bold statement. So you’ve had every single hot sauce in the United States of America?
I cant even buy one
Its not the peppers lol, the peppers are just added for the spice, just cause a company can “recreate” the ingredients does not mean its the same, it all depends on how it was made even the different temperature or how it was stirred can change the flavor.
I've bought many, many bottles of Huy Fong sriracha sauce over the years. After watching this, I've bought my last bottle. I'll be switching brands, possibly Underwood Ranches.
They announced there would be a shortage during the pandemic and indeed there was consistently an empty space on shelves. Then as soon as it appeared again people would buy it all up. Now once again that shelf space is barren. I will say though, that while I love Huy Fong as much as anyone else, there are other sriracha sauces out there that are just as good and for the truly industrious you can even make your own, so it's not a huge deal. I can get by until Huy Fong returns.
Siracha Sauce actually born in Thailand known as ศรีราชาพาณิชย์ or "Sriraja Panich" (Si Racha district of Chonburi in Thailand) but it was duplicated by Vietnam capitalist . the funniest is they use very familiar word into their label and distribute back to Thailand with more double price to origin. Unfortunately to the origin as they didn't patent before !
Shark Brand Sriracha Chili Sauce is Thai version. If you haven't tried it. It is so good!
Anyway they are all Chinese marchants, one created it in Thailand and the other one brought it to the U.S. from Vietnam...
And quite a few of the idiotic Thais (like my cousins) like the Huy Fong version more than the Sriraja Panich only because it comes from the U.S.
Many Thais still worship the "Made in U.S.A." label, just like the way Carabao sang about it back in the '80's.
@@SV-kr9fu That's a very Asian immigrant mentality to hold the "Made in USA" label in higher regards
@@echung168 : Not just Asian immigrants; it is the mentality of most of the Asians that are still living in those Asian countries as well.
This is just crazy. Both were/are doing GREAT, both are millionaires. The perfect relationship and basically the perfect business (regular consumption) , good for you and good for me and good for the community. But NO ~
People love change. They can't live without messing up a good thing.
And now none of us have good sriracha 🥲 Literally everyone lost
Kids with lawyers got involved
It seems that the directions of Huy Fong's business practices have changed, since David Tran's kids took over the operations.
i grew up with a family who is connected to this company, so we never saw a shortage, kinda sad to see people reselling it for insane prices when our store and restaurant saw zero difference
Go to an Asian , Indian Market or Grocery store. They have tons of it. Your shopping should include these vendors for two reasons. Different items and variety. Plus you keep them in business. It is so much fun to look at the myriad of products and unique items. If you are adventurous, curious or just wanting the basic staples. You will be rewarded. I also find that the staff are more than willing to help and guide you or answer questions. They are also focused on their store and want you to come back or tell your friends. I have done this around Pittsburgh for over 30 years. Big stores are great, but the specialty stores are the key to authentic epicurean delights, flavors and recipes for the home cook.
Exactly what I found out when I heard there was a shortage, no there isn’t, there’s only a shortage of American produced sriracha. Funny how the American public can trust any sriracha maker when huy fong were in Thailand but now they’re in the USA they won’t trust any other producers, hippocritical. Anyways, iam very happy with my Thailand copycat sriracha thank you.
even my local kroger has 3-5 brands of sriracha at any given time and the brands occasionally change. My local korean market has 5 different ones. Whole foods has a few different kinds. My local niche high end grocer has yet another few brands. There's no shortage except for one brand. On top of all that, once you try a few different brands of sriracha you realize that Huy Fong isn't even in the top 3 or 4 srirachas. Also, even between brands some batches have different flavors.
When the supply returns to the market, people start to develop new tastes with other hot sauce brands like Flying Duck Sriracha from Thailand and Tobasco Sriracha.
*The Kroger brand that is made in Vietnam is the cheapest and pretty good.*
I like the Ox brand and Texas Pete, although not the best, I like it .
@@LCCreole *Yes, I tried Ox and Sky Valley (from Litehouse) if memory serves the Ox was good but a bit on the salty side which a little sugar would probably bring close to Huy Fong's. I also tried Sriraja Panich from Thailand which is easily available in the US. The best flavor and price combo imo is the Kroger version sold at their many brands of markets for around $3. Huy Fong made a bad move cutting ties with their main pepper supplier and driving customers to other brands.*
We like flying Duck brand, chilies not to spicy and tast better.
I can see a 2nd generation with a freshly minted MBA taking over the Huy Fong biz, and tried something new to squeeze out the farmer.
agreed, a rookie mba is a guaranteed way to screw up any established business.
with that kind of stupidity and money they would have hire a lawyer instead.
I am ashamed of Tran and Company for not honoring their contracts and ruining a tried and true partnership.
We have lots of sriracha in Ireland. Its not very popular here but it is well stocked in every up market store.
I am in the US but English and Irish ancestry, and I do not like sriracha.
Jalapeños are tricky to grow? I planted them in the backyard of a rental house in Minnesota with no fertilizer. They grew like weeds. I couldn’t even give them all away before they went bad.
It's too bad Huy Fong played themselves like that, but I'll have to check out Underwood's version. I really haven't found a replacement that I like. Also miss the chili garlic and sambal olek sauces, guess this means I need to find replacements for those too. I miss having a mild hot sauce to use on everything.
Underwood's version is pretty good. I've tried multiple sriracha sauces and have not liked most of them. Underwood's has been my favorite so far. The only downside is that it's a bit pricey.
@@christianb4797 Good looking out, thanks! I might give the Trader Joe's version a shot too based on the comments.
@@christianb4797Sriracha only 👎
@xmistaxcashxcoll don't get me wrong, I like huy fong's sriracha, but I cannot find it anywhere.
Many other hot sauces in Chinese supermarket. Thai or schezhuen are most spicy 🔥. I now only buy Mexico LINDO habanero sauce for a few drops,it's spicy 🔥
I learned of this shortage when I was looking for a bottle last year, and could only find other brands in my local markets that didn’t taste anywhere near the same. I eventually found one when a lady at a local Asian market pretended she didn’t have any and after I looked for several minutes, she relented and let me know that she had one box of them undercover behind the register and said she would sell me one if I didn’t tell anyone she had them. I ran out recently, and was ready to go out and see if she had more. Watching this, at first, I was proud of them for achieving their goal here in America. Then, the way they backstabbed their American business partner reminded me of the way the Chinese ran the company I used to work for when they bought it. Very, very shady which is why I quit. This video makes me want to try harder to find another brand that can copycat the flavor.
It’ll be interesting to see if the price to dismantle the relationship was worth it for HF in the long run. We may have seen a shortage, but if they were thinking more long term, they could be more profitable? In the short term, they screwed over the relationship and faced a set back. This was really good info to what’s been happening. I really appreciate the HF sauce but have had the Underwood sauce as well. They are both good!
Doubtful, they're seven years out from cutting off Underwood and their supply chain is still broken. They tried to save a few bucks on procurement and it bit them in the ass.
In the short run they lost years of profit in a lawsuit and couldn't make it back because they couldn't get enough supply. In the long run they might recover- it's still a quality product. Now that customers can't get Huy Fung's sauces, many will try competing sauces and decide they like others better. Those are customers lost for life. On the other hand, scarcity can also increase demand as people want what's hard to get, and they may be able to increase prices, calling it a premium product.
My money is on losing customers overall though. There's also the loss of public goodwill due to greed that will hurt their reputation. Not to mention, future suppliers will know they don't honor purchase agreements and not invest too heavily in their jalapeno operations.
Maybe they recover but they already had so much market share and now they've opened the door, maybe for years, for another chili sauce to come in and take their place.
Is the Underwood product exactly like Huy Fongs? Which is better?
@@bkb04g they are similar, but not the same. I would say that the HF product has an iconic taste. Kinda like Heinz ketchup, lots of people do not want any other brand of ketchup.
The Huy Fong sriracha is not just about heat, it has a wonderful flavor as well. Has anybody tried the Underwood Farms sauce?
I just ordered a two pack, I'll let you know
@@andrewbartel9259how was it?
It sucks, quite a bit sweeter and way less depth of chili flavor and the bottle is really annoying to use. Total waste of money.@@InvntdXNEWROMAN
I think both side ended up losing. If they had maintained good business relationship, both could have made a lot more money. Underwood may have won the legal battle, but he would have been more profitable for years as sole supplier for Huy Fong. All this over $1 million.
huy fong wanted Underwood to ran out of business after not buying the promised jalapeno crops in 2017. But they are too stupid to think they can get away with signed contracts. Very ameteurish and arrogant of the founders' kids to make this move. In the end underwood still thrives and becomes their biggest rival.
th-cam.com/video/AWRZPLe0cUc/w-d-xo.html so I believe in Mr. Tran- founder of the Sriracha- hes an old man who doesn't care about money so it was Underwood that kept raising prices to make more money out of pure greed. So my guess is Underwood announces huge Chili price hikes close to the harvest season, then Sriracha had to go find another sources to keep the price low enough. But they had to agree with the Underwood's deal as a backup plan. After they found another sources that can satisfy their production quota in 2017, Sriracha then backed off of the deal as a revenge for Underwood nonsense price hike after 30 years. However Underwood sued Sriracha and won. It was Underwood's greed and the amateur handling of the contract as a cause for Sriracha paid a huge settlements to Underwood.
Yup, win win, unfortunately Huy Fong forgot both parties could win.
@@AlanNguyenMD With the UCC the contracts don't even need to be signed. The fact they had a long history of working together alone basically ensured Huy Fong would lose. The UCC makes damn near every business relationship a contract, especially when you have worked together for years there's an expectation that will continue. Huy Fong's kids must have skipped their business law classes to think they could get out of this.
Seems like it wasn’t 1 mil it was 22.5 mil
At 8:41 you can see Portulaca Oleracea (Purslane), a superfood often regarded as a weed. It is unique in multiple ways, including having the highest Omega-3 content of any plant and having developed a special combination of photosynthesis methods that make it uniquely suited to thrive under drought conditions. Great in salads and stews, where it acts as a natural thickener due to the high mucilage content.
sad (and surprisingly complicated) topic/issue. and unfortunately, i've tried many Sriracha-type sauces, and none came close so far to matching Huy Fong Foods' profile. must be the aging process, which none of the ones I've tried claimed to use. but not just the taste though, also the texture, and the color... RIP.
My husband uses this sauce in almost everything, he was going through a mental breakdown when he couldn’t find it in stores lol.
LOL...really
Yeah I understand it was what I always kept around...that garlic chili. It's hard to believe that they screwed their supplier as they could have raised their price a bit...they really had a brand loyalty for a good reason. It really did have a one of a kind taste.
Huy Fong is the stable for sriracha sauce. It’s not the same with other competitors sriracha. They can replicate all they want but it’s not the same spices. Huy Fong is the stable, like what Heinz is to ketchup. There is no comparison
Huy Fong Sriracha isn't even the same Huy Fong Sriracha anymore. Sourcing different peppers neutered the sauce.
Flying Goose brand is where it's at, imho.
Their "Blackout" sriracha is insanely yummy and spicy.
Thanks for recommendations. I’ll definitely try it
Stable?.. WTF.. You mean Staple?
autocorrect. I meant to say staple, Iykyk.
It is simply not available in my community antymore. I have tried other brands but they're not the same:(
Lose-lose for both Tran and Underwood, as some commercial users have already switched to other brands in the past few years. Like CNBC says, other sriracha makers are cautiously stepping in for the huge demand. Indeed, Huy Fong has also started supplying east coast, like 2 weeks ago, with very limited quantity. At such a delicate moment, we are finally invited to take a glance at the story
looks like underwood didn't lose. he won a huge amount in court depending on lawyer fees this would have to be pay as you go. lawyers don't take these cases on contingency . now he makes his own sauce as well as grows crops on the land.
I dont see how Underwood is losing? They even have their own hot sauce now.
@@xxZerosumxx Correct and he has diversified into other crops... canary tomatoes was it? Don't rip off your suppliers is the lesson here.
We’re only seeing one side of the story here
@@crystala7x182 so you want to hear the side of the people who lost in court?? ROFL
No sriracha, sambal oelek, et al, in Arizona. Such a shame - I miss it so much!!
The biggest blunders for any business is thinking you can do everything yourself, in-house.
Yup. Good Business is collaborating and outsourcing
Yep! These so-called "business geniuses" forget that old-school rule: if it's not broken, don't try to fix it!
@@tbolton6156I wonder who told them upper management they can grow their crops.
They see Costco doing it
What about Tesla?
Where can I locally purchase Underwood siracha in the bay area?
"We have supply chain issues"
The actual Issue: "We're suing our supply chain"
I'd discovered other brands of sriracha that are just as good as Huy Fong so have been purchasing those in the interim. Hopefully everyone gets the kinks worked out and Huy Fong can come back to market reliably. I'm not such a mega-fan, though, that I'm willing to pay $70 for two bottles. Ridiculous. People's greed is something else. I'm actually more relieved to hear it's not a climate issue that's causing pepper shortages as was being claimed. But as they mentioned towards the end of the story, it's something to be aware of in the years to come.
Would you be willing to share which ones you like? I’m down to my last half bottle.
if you live near an Asian community, you can get real Huy Fong bottles of Sriracha for a lot less
Climate change is still part of the problem here. Underwood's farm is in a corner of the state less affected by CC, but the other growers that Huy Fong tried to buy from had trouble growing them b/c the rest of the state is more affected.
Well thanks for not giving us your opinion on alternative sriracha sauces
I tried many and they use too much sugar. None taste the same. You're buying the others because you have too.
Honestly, this makes me a bit sad. They seemed to have a really close relationship.
Me, I'd rather make slightly less in margin and keep a long term relationship like that.
Always good to have a backup plan of action!
So Underwood just agreed to clear out their other crops in favour of peppers without a watertight contract? If the contract was solid then Huy Fong just ignored it and proceeded to diversify their supply chain? Something doesn’t add up here. The story makes it seem like amateur mistakes for two large corporates but I’m sure there’s more to it.
Not every business operates the same way. I’ve seen multi million dollar deals close on hand shakes. Typically lawyers don’t like it and this is exactly why lol
@@karlwithak. You must work for Huy Fong lol. This video was eye opening in the dirty tactics of Huy Fong. They lost $23 million court case, and lost the appeal too.
How the hell was the contract not airtight let alone watertight when they won 27M in court and won in appeals?
What a coincidence. Today I went to two chain stores to replace my Garlic Chili sauce. I walked into two stores, combined I walked about an hour, at least, looking for one or the other, Needless to say, I found no Garlic chilli sauce, or Siracha, as a replacement . I thought the brand was out of business because of COVID aftermath, or climate change. It's good to know.
Love to have someone do a blind taste test to see if they can tell the difference between the different brands of siracha ,maybe America test kitchen would like to do the testing?
Great idea!
Does Allah have any Sriracha by chance? If so, I'm there....
I could. My tongue has a good memory. And there are many more people who have a much better palate memory than I do.
I have tried two other brands of Sriracha and no doubt about it, the flavor is radically different and not as good! If anyone else has had a positive experience with another brand, please share with us.
The shortages have inspired me to learn how to make my own mash and turn it into my own sauce that is just as good. Necessity is the mother of invention, corporate wars and stupidity is the end of businesses.
Pho will never be the same without this hot sauce.
The Huy Fong Sriracha sauce is readily available at S&R stores in the Philippines in more than one variety. It is my favorite for spicing up chili.
in NA pplz will flip anything for profit even hot sauce.
I work in retail, when I first heard of this back in 2020 I took everything our WHS had of the three sauces, think I had about 72 bottles in total. It lasted about 6 months. Now haven't had it in stock since then.
That's 7oz a day for 180 days.
This is a good example of greed biting a company in the ass.
I lived near Rosemead by the original plant and the area burnt your throat much liken walking into ans authentic large Mexican grocery store with loads of peppers in the produce section.. I cant love without this sauce and have been nursing the last bottle for 2 months..
staged
It's been a sad year without that sriracha, no other brands come near being as good 💯
the new stuff made is now crap so get use to other "brands"
@@kjeaquatics I just switched back to franks red hot sauce. I mean Kroger brand sriracha is probably the best one I found so far. It's ok
I’ve seen counterfeit versions of this lately. It is not the same
Exactly.. Same Experience... NOT the same.. So I stopped buying it..... You can tell by it's Color.
Yeh. That's what happening. Not liking it 1 bit. I've bought a case and I had a bottle left from the time the "shortage" happened and there is a color difference, it's lighter red than the previous version. Didn't consume any of the new version just sold them. Haven't seen any since. I've seen them online for 4Xs the retail price. Greed is everywhere.
yeah, I won't buy another brand.
Local Dollar Store threw out a bunch of Sriracha , it's not expired or damaged, I grabbed it and we're set for a long time.
Did that woman just say Siracha is the hottest sauce? 😂😂
Huy Fong Foods got greedy. That's why they're suffering. And Underwood Ranch is thriving with their own brand of Sriracha. Never screw over your supplier of key ingredients.
Personally I've never used Sriracha and have no interest to. I'm sure it's a great product if it's being talked about in major news outlets.
Or it needs the mass media boost. Huy Fong sauces were sold purely by word of mouth, only becoming newsworthy during the 2013 factory odor incident and this legal clash with Underwood.
i dont think you understand whos been greedy here. the BUYER cant never be greedy, only the Seller do. in this relation whos the seller?
@@jackli6592 When the buyer of peppers is selling sauce they absolutely can be greedy. Increasing margins is fueled by greed.
Good thing Sriracha is a super simple recipe and there's multiple company's that make it and it all tastes basically the same. That's why Huy Fong was never able to trademark it, because it's a basic chili sauce recipe that's been around for hundreds of years in several Asian countries. Tran didn't "invent" Sriracha, he just made it popular in America. I personally recommend Tobascos Sriracha "Thai Chili Sauce" anyways.
I mean seriously, where do you think all that farmers (ripe Red) Jalapenos are going? Because they are clearly still growing right behind him. Hint, other brands making the same exact thing.
There's no shortage of sriracha, just looked in the fridge and my cabinets, I have four bottles. LOL
Huy Fong has always been my favorite, but after not finding it on shelves, I came across and like Texas Pete's Sriracha-Cha! sauce. I'll probably go back to Huy Fong if it becomes readily available again, but Sriracha-Cha! will definitely tide me over until that time. 🙂
..That name though 😅🤣
@@DatsWhatHeSaid Yeah, made me LOL when I first saw the bottle (my wife was the one that bought it) - but it’s good though!
@@DatsWhatHeSaidThe name made me think of a combination of either sriracha and a shacha mix or sriracha and some kind of tea mixture 🤣🤣
"What goes around, comes around." The name "Sriracha Sauce" was coined roughly 70-80 years ago in Thailand when the recipe was first created. There's a rural Thai province named "Sriracha" where you can visit the original manufacturing facility. Hua Fong adapted this recipe, swapping out the original blend of bird's eye chili and spur chili with jalapeños, likely because they are more common in North America. They marketed their product as the "original Sriracha," despite Thais enjoying the sauce long before their business started. Huy Fong's exclusive presence in the US may convey originality to North American consumers who may not be acquainted with the sauce's Thai origins. Nonetheless, some argue they should pay more homage to the sauce's Thai heritage. The true original Sriracha sauce may have some catching up to do in terms of marketing and customer loyalty, but you can often find it at Asian grocery stores. In my opinion, Huy Fong's business approach may explain some of their current challenges and their inevitable downfall.
I've read that the now-elderly founder has passed the management of the company to his children and family, who cut off their long-time supplier of jalapenos for cheaper sources in Mexico. Then the drought and production issues came up in Mexico leaving the company stranded with no supplies.
Basically a Viet doing whatever to offer a product and claim it as their own. Known a couple of them throughout the years.
At Walmart supermarket, they now have several sriracha sauces by various brands. This type of appropriation is very common in food products. It's best to register the trademark or name if possible.
It is like ketchup or mustard. There is no trademark on a name of something.@@MrTachyon3000
Actually, it's a subdistrict of Chonburi province, a place I love. But Tran did the marketing, fair or not, so his sauce is the 'red standard'...I prefer the Thai stuff, myself...
To explain the “legal battle” basically… Huy Fong would pay the Pepper Farm in advance to cover the cost of production for that year. Somehow Huy Fong mistakenly over payed them $1.46 million(according to Huy Fong). The pepper farm refused to send that money back and that’s when the legal battle started. It wasn’t about loyalty it’s about the principle of someone feeling like they’re being taking advantage of by the other.
That was a great post!
Although huy fong tastes very good and i love it , it doesn't taste like thai sriracha at all
So glad I watched this whole video to see that they made their own Sriracha heck yeah I want to buy it
Same, now I wanna try it
Here is how i see this played out; as a new from college kid of owners finally got to take over the business and said
-You know that farmer that we get peppers from?
-You mean the one who has been working with us for decades, grows the exact peppers we need for our special brands sauce and delivers on time? That farmer?
-Yea, well F that farmer, they are just red jalapeños, we can source them from somewhere else and save a bunch of money!
-Hello Karma.
03:30 | So how does the airplane dropping water(?) relate to the sriracha shortage?
A few weeks ago while doing my turn of grocery shopping i happen to glance over the hot sauce aisle, I looked at Huy Food brand Siracha and said out loud wow $10?!, let me try something else. I grabbed a random much lesser cost Siracha, not knowing about Underwood Farms until this video. I purchased the underwood brand and let me tell you something, this Siracha is way better in terms of flavor, taste and texture. I am now an Underwood Siracha buyer. My advice, go out of your comfort zone, try new sauce and experiment see what you like, why pay $10 for catchup? Never again...
I was recently able to get a different brand Sriracha at my local grocery and I was kind of skeptical about how the taste would differ from what I was used to but surprisingly it tastes just the same as Huey Fong's and was only $6 a bottle.
My experience was the opposite, all of the imitation Sriracha I've bought tasted off. Even the Huy Fong's own Sriracha that I was able to buy recently no longer tastes like it used to.
What brand did you get?
@@b61227 Sky Valley Sriracha
We love visiting Underwood Farms at least once a month, they have two pick your own farms in Moorpark and Somis. Getting to know the seasonal crops and cutting our own food really teaches the kids to be more appreciative of what it takes to get food onto their plate. The staff has always been very friendly and helpful, and if they carry these same morals and standards into their wholesale business then Huy Fong Foods were idiots for cutting ties.
This was a Huy Fong hit piece. The fact Underwood made his own Srirachi tells me he isn’t 100% a good guy.
I’m sure it’s a little bit of both doing each other dirty.
@@majorlazor5058 There’s at least 4 other companies that I see from grocery shelves that make Sriracha, since it’s not an invention of Huy Fong Foods I don’t see an issue. And from what I’ve read about the law suit there was bad faith on the part of HF first.
@@yvonne3582 Fong can’t be called greedy for looking for another grower and Underwood can’t be seen as “just doing what other people are doing”…
You can’t have it both ways.
@@majorlazor5058 I never called HF greedy, you can look for a better, cheaper, or more efficient supplier it is after all a free market. But to break a contract that involves months of supplies and labor planting and maintenance of crops was wrong, and they were made to pay for it. As I said it’s a free market anyone with the knowledge and equipment can technically make a Sriracha sauce, you can’t fault any of the companies for wanting to profit from the high demand. It’s a sauce that can be made by anyone at home as well, should we all not do it because Huy Fong holds the majority of the market?
@@majorlazor5058 Dang dude, you're something else. Do you get paid to be a professional contrarian?
Where’s the shortage? My local Kroger is stocked