Why you might notice mustard missing from store shelves

WHETHER in a vinaigrette, on a hot dog or to give home-made mayo a kick, mustard is a key ingredient for many dishes and recipes. However, it's a product that's increasingly absent from store shelves in some countries. So what's going on?

Mustard has gone missing, but this has nothing to do with the game Clue. Both French and English-speaking media have been reporting a mustard shortage, especially the Canadian media. As the world's largest producer and exporter of mustard seeds, Canada experienced severe drought in 2021 and a heat dome during the summer, with temperatures approaching 50°C.

These exceptional weather conditions have drastically reduced yields of this essential ingredient for mustard production. The sales manager of the brand Reine de Dijon told the AFP news agency in December 2021 that this crisis was like nothing seen for 25 years.

And this situation has already had consequences on the price of mustard, which increased by more than 9% in one year in France, according to IRI data. In Canada, people are therefore preparing for a shortage of mustard jars on shelves this summer.

Mustard seeds are not the only essential ingredients suffering the effects of climate change. Chili peppers grown in Mexico to produce sriracha sauce -- a staple in spicy Thai dishes -- have not had a sufficiently large crop to satisfy the production needs of the condiment.

In the case of mustard, however, the vagaries of the weather do not explain everything. There is also the war in Ukraine. As Russia is the world's second-largest producer of mustard seeds and Zelensky's country the fifth, the supply chains of raw materials are logically suffering the repercussions of the conflict.

So what about relying on French production? According to the association of mustard seed producers in Burgundy, this has increased from 4,000 tonnes in 2016 to 12,000 tonnes in 2021 -- in short, not enough to meet demand.