World Grain - January 2013 - 6

from the editor-in-chief

Instant noodles as
single product success

hile reliable data are lacking to
afﬁrm that baking bread is the
world’s top user of wheat ﬂour, the
temptation is great to cite in second place
another food: instant or cup noodles. Since
instant noodles are very much a modernday, even fairly new food as compared with
bread’s venerability, it is instructive to examine how such a new product has captured
so grand a market share. Yes, convenience
and cheapness account for a large part of
the success of instant noodles, once more
emphasizing for the food industry the essential role of these forces in driving demand. Yet, a deeper look emphasizes that
product innovation, both in ﬂavoring and
product quality as well as in packaging, deserves credit for boosting demand.
The best source of data on instant noodles
is the World Instant Noodle Association,
which owes its creation to the late Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of this product whose company, Nissin Foods, ranks
among leaders of the global industry. It was
Mr. Ando who at a time of post-World War
II food shortages saw the opportunity to use
relief shipments of American ﬂour to make
a noodle product that would provide needed
nutrients. As his product’s reach extended to
other countries, he sponsored the association
to serve as a clearing house for sharing information as well as to lead in spurring donations of instant noodles in natural or other

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Morton I. Sosland
Arvin Donley
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disasters causing an immediate food need.
Quite unexpectedly, instant noodles, free of
nuclear contamination, assumed an essential
position in feeding the Japanese when the
nation, as a result of natural causes, faced a
nuclear disaster last year.
It is in hardly 50 years that instant noodles
have become a product with annual sales
within range of 100 billion packets. Half
of those sales are in China, where the largest noodle maker, Tingyi Holding, recently
hosted a “summit” of the association. The
main agenda item involved dealing with
criticism of instant noodles as unhealthy because of claims of excess sodium and fat as
well as the ﬂash frying used in making the
product. The industry is taking steps to mitigate the attacks, while engaging in marketing to underscore the fundamental value of
noodles in assuring an adequate food supply
for a growing population.
Hardly anything emphasizes this role
more starkly than the expansion of demand ruling in every country where instant noodles have a foothold. After China,
Indonesia is the largest market, at 14.5 billion packets per year, followed by Japan at
5.5 billion, Vietnam at 4.9 billion and the
United States, 4 billion. Demand is coming
on strong in countries as diverse as Russia
and Brazil.
Indonesia is a fascinating example of the
way this product has affected the makeup

of the entire food industry. The Indofood
Group, Indonesia’s largest food manufacturer, is also the world’s largest manufacturer of instant noodles. To supply that
demand, its ﬂour milling unit, Bogasari,
ranks as one of the world’s largest, operating a milling facility in Jakarta that is unrivaled. At one time, Indofood turned out
most of Indonesia’s ﬂour to make noodles.
It now must deal with 16 competitive milling companies. This nation’s noodle market
growth matches its 6% annual uptrend in
gross domestic product, reﬂecting the way
rising disposable income has created a very
different food market where a product like
instant or cup noodles has captured an unbeatable position.
Indofood in Indonesia, Tingyi in China
and Nissin in Japan are in the forefront of
efforts to spur instant noodle demand. In
China, Tingyi is credited with introducing
an incredible 280 different ﬂavors. The huge
market held by instant noodles, largely at the
expense of rice, has been deemed well worth
saving to the point that every sector — ﬂour
miller, nutrient provider, spice supplier and
packaging producer — has joined to assure
that this position continues to build. It serves
as a stark reminder of what can be done with
a single successful food product.

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Morton I. Sosland
Editor-in-chief

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World Grain - January 2013

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