---
title: "Instant Noodle Industry Sees First Rebound in Five Years: What's Heating Up This Bowl of Noodles?"
description: "China, the world's largest instant noodle market, has seen sales decline for five years, but recent financial reports from leading companies show the industry has finally rebounded. This recovery is attributed to product innovation towards health and nutrition, and a shift towards mid-to-high-end products, not a sign of consumption downgrade."
author: "New Distribution"
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published: "2018-09-19"
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# Instant Noodle Industry Sees First Rebound in Five Years: What's Heating Up This Bowl of Noodles?

> China, the world's largest instant noodle market, has seen sales decline for five years, but recent financial reports from leading companies show the industry has finally rebounded. This recovery is attributed to product innovation towards health and nutrition, and a shift towards mid-to-high-end products, not a sign of consumption downgrade.

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**For a long time, China's consumption of instant noodles has accounted for about half of the world's total sales. However, over the past five years, domestic instant noodle sales have been on a downward trend, with a decline of up to 16.66%. But recently, financial reports released by major leading companies show that the instant noodle industry has seen its first rebound in five years.**
**Three Years of Sluggish Performance, Now a Bounce from the Bottom**
In 2017, global instant noodle production reached 100 billion packs, with China being the largest market. However, due to consumption upgrades, the impact of food delivery services, and the "junk food" label attached to instant noodles, they once fell out of favor.
Taking 2012 as a dividing line, the domestic instant noodle industry's sales revenue dropped from 58.1 billion yuan to 49.86 billion yuan in 2017, and production fell from a peak of 50 billion packs in 2010 to 34.2 billion packs in 2017, with per capita consumption dropping from 40 packs to 27 packs.
However, after nearly three years of transformation, the instant noodle industry, which had seen declining sales, has now stabilized and recovered. Data shows that from 2017 to the first half of 2018, China's instant noodle industry showed an overall recovery trend, with sales volume increasing by 4.5% and sales revenue by 8.6%, achieving growth in both volume and price, and accelerating growth.
Chen Qinglun has been a distributor of instant noodles in Beijing for over 10 years. Speaking of the past few years, Chen Qinglun frankly said that times were tough, and in 2015 and 2016, performance was not particularly good. But since the beginning of this year, he has clearly felt the market warming up, as his task completion rate this year is nearly 30% higher than the same period last year.
Ru Xin, a research supervisor at Master Kong's R&D center, said that after price increases, they often worry about declining sales, but in the first half of this year, sales, especially in large supermarkets, doubled.
In addition to the recovery of established companies, new brands such as Baixiang and Nissin also saw varying degrees of sales growth. In the first half of 2018, the overall sales volume of the domestic instant noodle industry increased by 5.9%, and sales revenue increased by 10.1%.
Master Kong's semi-annual report shows that its instant noodle business revenue reached 11.134 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%; another giant, Uni-President's instant noodle semi-annual report also shows that its instant noodle business revenue in the first half of the year reached 4.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.0%. At the same time, new brands such as Baixiang and Nissin also saw varying degrees of sales growth.
Master Kong, Uni-President, Jinmailang, Baixiang, and Nissin, these five leading instant noodle companies, occupy more than 85% of China's market share. In the first half of 2018, the overall sales volume of the domestic instant noodle industry increased by 5.9%, and sales revenue increased by 10.1%.
**"Healthier" Improvements and Fresh Eating Methods Cater to Young People**
Ru Xin, a doctor at Master Kong Holdings' research institute, said that lack of nutrition and unhealthiness were once important reasons why people no longer wanted to eat instant noodles. The process from "making do" to "being particular" is a consumption upgrade.
It is reported that in response to the current consumption upgrade, instant noodle companies have also shifted their products towards "healthy" and "nutritious" directions. Through technological innovation, the industry has reduced oil content, MSG amounts, and increased vegetable varieties, meeting consumers' dual needs for convenience and health, and market sales volume and revenue have both shown an upward trend.
Wei Yimin, deputy director of the National Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee and professor at the Institute of Agro-Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that whether in flavor or form, instant noodles are now closer to a freshly cooked bowl of noodles from a noodle shop.
**Good Instant Noodle Sales Do Not Necessarily Mean Consumption Downgrade**
"Pickled vegetables, instant noodles, and erguotou, riding a Mobike for a stroll." Recently, many people on social media used this to mock themselves for experiencing a "consumption downgrade." In 2016, instant noodle sales declined for four consecutive years, and in this context, consumption upgrade became a hot topic. Now that instant noodle sales have rebounded, some people naturally assume this is a sign of consumption downgrade.
But the actual situation is not so. In the past, instant noodles lingered in the price range below 5 yuan for a long time, and the entire industry fell into fierce low-price competition. **Now the competition is more concentrated in the 5 to 6 yuan range.** Shao Wei, vice chairman of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, believes that seizing the opportunity of consumption upgrade, improving product structure, and enhancing industry value, the entire industry has begun to transform towards health and nutrition. This has been a deep transformation of the instant noodle industry over the past three years.
Yang Shouzheng, general manager of Uni-President Enterprises (China) Investment Co., Ltd., introduced that the proportion of high-priced instant noodles in Uni-President's portfolio has been continuously increasing, and sales have also been accelerating, with growth rates exceeding 20% to 30% from 2015 to 2017. In addition, in 2017, Jinmailang's instant noodle business achieved 20% growth, with low-end products growing by about 6% and mid-to-high-end instant noodles growing by more than 30%.
In other words, under the pressure of a new round of consumption upgrade, the instant noodle industry is lengthening and widening its originally flat product lines and price bands, moving away from the long-standing single low-price competition, and meeting the needs of different levels and segments of consumers. The current rebound in instant noodles is more due to the growth of mid-to-high-end products, so linking it to consumption downgrade is not appropriate.
Source: CCTV Finance, Beijing Daily, China Economic Net
**On October 23-24, during the Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, the "2018 FMCG City Distribution Logistics Conference" hosted by New Distribution will be held.** At that time, we will invite industry experts, FMCG warehousing and distribution specialists, and distributors who have transformed to unified warehousing and distribution platforms to discuss and answer questions about the future development trends of FMCG city distribution logistics and practical cases of distributor transformation to unified warehousing and distribution, hoping to bring you different inspiration and thinking!
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