Jamaican producers of Caribbean hot sauce — a condiment as ubiquitous in the region as ketchup in the United States — are warning of order cancellations and steep price rises after back-to-back hurricanes, disease, and pests devastated supplies of the Scotch bonnet pepper, the small, fiery yellow chilli at the heart of the industry. Last October's Hurricane Melissa, described as the strongest in Jamaica's recorded history, struck an agricultural sector already weakened by Hurricane Beryl in 2024, pushing Scotch bonnet prices up as much as tenfold immediately after the storm and roughly 40–50% over two years. Major exporters such as Walkerswood and Gray's Pepper, whose products reach supermarket chains including Walmart, Tesco, and Woolworths, say the crisis threatens an industry that ships tens of millions of dollars' worth of sauce and seasoning to North America, Europe, and Australia each year, prompting some producers to fund genetics research into more resilient pepper strains.