Ohhh Sriracha…

From: http://qz.com/132738/the-highly-unusual-company-behind-siracha-the-worlds-coolest-hot-sauce/

http://qz.com/132738/the-highly-unusual-company-behind-siracha-the-worlds-coolest-hot-sauce/

Read a very interesting article about the growth into prominence of Sriracha hot sauce, interesting point I never thought of:

“Sriracha sales last year reached some 20 million bottles to the tune of $60 million dollars, percentage sales growth is in the double digits each year, and it does all this without spending a cent on advertising….

Today hot sauce is an emerging global business. The industry, which is among the10 fastest growing in the US, now rakes in over $1 billion a year in global sales. “

Wow that’s a lot of hot sauce! What’s even more, that’s a lot of chillis!

“One of the few data points Tran will reveal about Huy Fong is that it processed some 100 million pounds (45 million kilograms) of fresh chilies last year over the course of its harvest season, which lasts only 10 weeks and provides for the entirety of the company’s yearlong Sriracha sales.  ”We can only grow as quickly as our ability to harvest chilies grows,” Tran said.”

With the massive increase in the hot sauce business, what’s the increase in demand for chillies? Do they source differently? Not Huy Fong (who produces Sriracha) who has only one producer:

 “So Huy Fong’s Rosemead factory sits only an hour away from Underwood Family Farms, which has been the company’s only chili supplier for the past 20 years.”

Interesting to note, Huy Fong has not spent any money on advertising or marketing, according to the article, and come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Sriracha ad anywhere. In fact, I can’t even remember the first time I ever saw a Sriracha bottle, it’s seemed to just always have been there. I wonder how many chillis they go through in a year?

Mmmm sugar… some would say the cause of and solution to some of life’s biggest problems. I admit it, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I rather skip the desserts and head straight to the libations, but I can’t deny how vital sugar is as a taste enhancer in well, pretty much everything.

I had an opportunity this weekend to attend Pursuing Impact: A symposium on international development, hosted by the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning. (http://bccic.ca/event/pursuing-impact-symposium-international-development). It was a fascinating day of listening to interesting speakers and their experiences working in various communitites around in the world in Community based learning and work activities.

One thing in particular stood out to me, a speaker from Oxfam Canada mentioned their GROW campaign, which serves to raise awareness on the impact of land grabs on farmers and rural communities in order to grow sugar. Some interesting quotes from the Oxfam Canada Behind the Brands Campaign: http://www.oxfam.ca/grow/act/behind-the-brands

“The global sugar trade is worth about $47 billion. The world produced 176 million tonnes of sugar last year. The food and drinks industry accounts for more than half of it.

Land grabbing is a bitter secret in the sugar supply chains of some of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies. Poor communities across the globe are in dispute or even being kicked off their land, without consultation or compensation, to make way for huge sugar plantations.”

Now that’s a lot of sugar. And that’s probably going to be a lot of land grabbed.

Here’s another interesting sheet: http://files.oxfam.ca/docs/btb/sugar-and-land/Land-and-Sugar-Fact-Sheet-Small.pdf for more information if you’re interested.

And if you’re interested in seeing what you can possibly do to help, by lobbying drink companies, or aiding Oxfam Canada, here’s the web page

http://www.oxfam.ca/grow/act/behind-the-brands

So I was reading this article recently…

http://modernfarmer.com/2013/10/caffeinated-revolution-drinking-good-coffee-columbia/

And it never occurred to me that Colombians were drinking bad coffee. When you think of Colombia, what do you think of? Coffee, right? (Well and other things, but that’s outside the scope of this discussion, and from what I’ve heard, not really relevant in Colombia nowadays)

The images of Juan Valdez and his burro offering you a cup of steaming (albeit, not really that good) coffee spring to mind when you think of Colombian agriculture, and yet:

“Pedro Echavarria: The crappiest coffee you drink is on coffee farm, it’s true: 99 percent of the time if you’re offered coffee, they give you a sugarcane beverage called agua panela with Nescafe added to it.”

And if you think about it, it kind of does make sense, all the work goes into the growing of the coffee, and yet, there is less knowledge about the process of roasting and brewing a good cuppa joe. Which makes you wonder sometimes about what else farmers around the world are missing out about their wondrous product because they are so focused on growing a product that they don’t actually have the opportunity to sample the best examples of how their product are enjoyed? What if Banana farmers never had the chance to sample a finely baked banana bread, or a banana cream pie? Come to think of it, maybe none of them ever have? What else would we be missing out on because we grew a certain crop?

Or maybe this is just a matter of local tastes and demand? When I lived in Costa Rica, they drank good coffee. Or maybe it’s because I was in an office full of gringos that liked to drink good coffee, that’s why we got the good stuff. I remember growing up in Asia, there wasn’t much in the way of a coffee culture, but then again, nowadays there is a booming coffee culture in the region, so perhaps its because of the boom in good coffee culture that has resulted in the increase in coffee quality. Or maybe it’s because now they can justify charging $5 a cup vs $1 a cup. Has profit margin driven the increase or is it because of quality increase?

Definitely points to ponder