Hot Sauce One of America's Fastest Growing Industries

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s "foodies" become more and more of a "thing" and macho-men eating contests continue to happen, it's no surprise that hot sauce has become one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. The condiment is expected to be a $1.3 billion industry by 2017, with McIlhenny Co.'s legendary Tabasco sauce leading the way. But what's causing the change?

What's your favorite hot sauce?

IBISWorld, an industry and market research organization, says that the industry has been on the rise for the past ten years with average annual revenue increases hovering around 9.3% a year.

Part of the cause comes from people becoming more adventurous eaters—ethnic supermarkets are also growing rapidly, and incidentally, offer a variety of hot sauces not usually found in typical grocery stores. Even so, traditional stores are dedicating more shelf space to ethnic cuisines, the report from IBISWorld noted.

Demand for hot sauce has been driven by consumption trends, as well as immigration and international demand, especially in Canada, the United Kingdown, and Japan.

Also on the list of the top ten rapidly-growing industries were generic pharmaceutical manufacturing, solar panel manufacturing, for-profit universities, Pilates and yoga studios, self-tanning product manufacturing, 3-D printer manufacturing, and online eyeglasses/contact lens sales.

What's your favorite hot sauce?

[Source: MNN]

[Photo: Flickr]