Scotch bonnet peppers are a cultural cornerstone of Caribbean cuisine, as indispensable to dining tables in the region as ketchup is in the United States. The fiery yellow chilli is the foundation of the hot pepper sauces exported globally from the Caribbean. That supply chain is now strained by a confluence of climate-driven weather events, plant diseases, and pests that producers say is pushing costs higher and threatening the availability of a product line that has found its way onto the shelves of major retailers including Walmart in the US, Tesco in the UK, and Woolworths in Australia.
The most significant blow came from Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica in October 2025. The storm was the strongest hurricane in the island’s recorded history. Sean Garbutt of Associated Manufacturers, which produces Walkerswood sauces and seasonings, said the company lost production capacity and “did have to cancel orders.” Walkerswood exports the equivalent of 500 20-foot cargo containers each year, with more than 95% of its products shipped abroad, two-thirds of them to the United States.
Walkerswood’s flagship product, its yellow Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce, has been the hardest to maintain. The company uses fresh peppers — it does not add coloring — and must cook them within a week of crushing to achieve the sauce’s signature vibrant color. “The weather is always a challenge,” Garbutt said Rush, telling the BBC that heavy rain can also alter the pepper’s heat level. “We might get a call from someone who says they really enjoyed our pepper sauce, but it wasn’t as hot as it normally is.”
Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica while the agricultural sector was still recovering from Hurricane Beryl the year before. The back-to-back storms convinced many farmers to abandon Scotch bonnets for more resilient crops. Garbutt said that after Beryl, “many farmers switched to sweet potato because it’s much hardier and the price per pound is better.”
Drew Gray, whose grandfather founded Gray’s Pepper more than 50 years ago, said the hurricanes “wiped off most of the crop.” As one of Jamaica’s largest buyers of Scotch bonnets, Gray’s Pepper faces a scarcity that has been onerous. “Right after Melissa, Scotch bonnets went up maybe 10-fold, which was crazy,” Gray said. “Over the last two years, there’s been an overall increase of about 40-50%.”
Gray’s strategy is to maintain high inventory levels year-round as a buffer against seasonal disruptions. “Going into Beryl we had around six months of inventory, and about the same for Melissa. It’s a strain on cashflow, but it allows us to weather the storms,” he said. Gray’s premises were damaged when Melissa’s eye passed directly overhead, but the company resumed shipping orders within two weeks.
Dwight Forrester of Jamaica’s Rural Agricultural Development Authority told the BBC that the government has supplied Scotch bonnet seeds to 650 growers to support replanting. He said the peppers face “myriad challenges right across the Caribbean” including susceptibility to viruses and pests like gall midges. Jamaica exports 40% of its pepper production, much of it to neighboring Caribbean islands.
In Antigua, the shortage has been felt by smaller producers. Ensly Smith, owner of Homebrew Hot Sauce, said his business sometimes must defer or reduce customer orders. “We might tell a supplier we can only give them two of the four cases they ordered, for example,” he said. Smith stockpiled close to 600 pounds of peppers before Hurricane Melissa hit freshman, which allowed him to continue operations.
Novella Payne, who runs the Antiguan label Granma Aki, said she has begun using locally grown Moruga scorpion peppers — a variety native to Trinidad — to avoid paying high prices for Scotch bonnets.
Producers are experimenting with alternative chilli varieties. Some have turned to high-yielding hybrid red peppers that show greater disease resistance. Walkerswood, which has established its own government-partnered farm in Jamaica to grow crops for its products, is also funding genetics research aimed at developing a resilient strain of the classic yellow Scotch bonnet. “Lots of countries grow red chillis, but our yellow peppers are special,” Garbutt said.