---
title: "Instant Noodles Remain 'Fragrant'"
description: "As the largest subcategory in the instant food sector by sales and market share, changes in the instant noodle market are always a topic of great concern. Despite challenges from takeout, pre-made dishes, and other convenience foods, as well as the 'junk food' misconception, the category has actually seen steady growth over the long term. For instance, demand in 2024 exceeded 2019 levels by over 2.3 billion servings, and major players continue to benefit from premiumization trends."
author: "让消费更纯粹的"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2025-09-14"
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citation: "让消费更纯粹的. “Instant Noodles Remain 'Fragrant'.” New Distribution, 2025-09-14. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/instant-noodles-remain-fragrant-05755730/"
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---

# Instant Noodles Remain 'Fragrant'

> As the largest subcategory in the instant food sector by sales and market share, changes in the instant noodle market are always a topic of great concern. Despite challenges from takeout, pre-made dishes, and other convenience foods, as well as the 'junk food' misconception, the category has actually seen steady growth over the long term. For instance, demand in 2024 exceeded 2019 levels by over 2.3 billion servings, and major players continue to benefit from premiumization trends.

### **Source** | Whole Point Consumption
As the largest subcategory in the instant food sector by sales scale and market share, changes in the instant noodle market have always been a topic of great concern across all sectors.
On one hand, the rapid growth of takeout, pre-made dishes, and other convenience food categories has impacted the consumption scenarios of instant noodles; on the other hand, instant noodles have long been constrained by consumers' misconception of them as "junk food," capping their future growth potential.
However, if we take a longer view, the instant noodle category remains quite "fragrant."

**Three Years, 4 Billion Fewer Servings? Just Returning to Normal**
Previously, the topic of "instant noodles selling 4 billion fewer servings in three years" sparked heated discussion, mainly based on data from the World Instant Noodles Association, which showed that between 2020 and 2023, demand for instant noodles in China (including mainland China and Hong Kong, hereinafter the same) decreased by a total of 4 billion servings.
But is that really the case?
Image source: World Instant Noodles Association official website (screenshot)
According to the latest data from the association's official website on May 7 this year, from 2020 to 2024, China's instant noodle demand was 46.36 billion, 43.99 billion, 45.07 billion, 42.21 billion, and 43.8 billion servings, respectively.
In other words, the view of "4 billion fewer servings" is based on the peak of 46.36 billion servings in 2020, with demand declining in the subsequent four years, especially in 2023, when the decrease exceeded 4.15 billion servings.
As is well known, in 2020, due to the black swan event, not only did various instant foods experience a boom, but pre-made dishes also entered a golden period of rapid development. As daily consumption returned to normal, it is not surprising that pre-made dishes have seen sluggish sales and instant noodles have contracted somewhat.
If we extend the timeline, data from the same association shows that in 2018 and 2019, China's instant noodle demand was 40.25 billion and 41.45 billion servings, respectively. It is worth noting that 2019 was also a five-year high at that time.
From this perspective, in the recent five years, China's instant noodle demand has been significantly higher than in 2019. So simply saying "4 billion fewer servings" is not entirely accurate.
In contrast, it seems more appropriate to say that the domestic instant noodle market demand has been stable with a slight increase. After all, 2024 saw an increase of over 2.3 billion servings compared to 2019.
Entering 2025, the instant noodle market continues to face various pressures. According to data from马上赢 (MaShangYing), in the first half of this year, instant noodle sales declined by 6.22% year-on-year, but its market share in the instant food sector increased by 1.43 percentage points.
That is to say, while sales declined, the share continued to rise, which indirectly confirms the dominant position of instant noodles in the instant food track.
At the enterprise level, in the first half of the year, Master Kong's instant noodle business sales decreased by 2.5% year-on-year to 13.465 billion yuan; Uni-President China Holdings' food business, including instant noodles, achieved revenue of 5.382 billion yuan, up 8.8% from the same period last year; Nissin Foods' mainland China business revenue was 1.222 billion Hong Kong dollars, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%; Kemen Food's convenience food business, mainly "Wugu Daochang," achieved revenue of 153 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.23%...
Data from马上赢 shows that in the first half of 2025, the top ten groups by market share in instant noodles were Master Kong, Uni-President, Baixiang, Jinmailang, Samyang, Nissin, Yang Zhanggui, Siyuan, Yuzhu, and Huafeng, with the CR10 groups holding a combined market share of 90.8%.
In other words, the domestic instant noodle market remains dominated by giants such as Master Kong, Uni-President China Holdings, Baixiang, and Jinmailang, with these four brands holding market shares of 40.31%, 18.07%, 15.13%, and 7.84%, respectively, and the CR4 groups holding a combined market share of 81.35%.
So, for these giants, instant noodles remain quite "fragrant." Especially in the first half of this year, the improvement in gross margins for the instant noodle category will allow the giants to further enjoy the dividends.

**Opportunities and Challenges in the Upgrade Wave**
Looking at the development path over the past many years, especially with the narrowing of demographic dividends and consumption scenarios, the overall demand for instant noodles will not see significant positive growth.
Jinmailang Chairman Fan Xianguo once publicly stated: "I predict that from 2020 to 2030, China's instant noodles will see a peak in servings, but sales will double. As long as the compound annual growth rate reaches 7.11%, we can achieve a scale of 100 billion by 2030."
Therefore, to maintain the overall trend of stability with slight growth, the entire category must seize opportunities from product upgrades and iterations. To put it more bluntly, instant noodle companies need to stabilize sales while finding ways to sell instant noodles at higher prices.
In fact, the upgrade and iteration of instant noodles has been a continuous topic since Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles. From production processes to ingredients, to packaging, the category has evolved. It has gradually developed into fried and non-fried categories, packaging has expanded to bags and cups (bowls), and ingredients have become more abundant. It is not hard to understand, as instant noodles mainly consist of the noodle block and seasoning packets besides packaging materials.
Currently, fried instant noodles remain the mainstream in the market, but major manufacturers are also focusing on non-fried as an important breakthrough direction. Fan Xianguo predicted: "Fried instant noodles, zero-fried instant noodles, and home pre-made noodles will each account for one-third of the market by 2030."
Besides Jinmailang, Master Kong, as the largest instant noodle company, has also incorporated non-fried as a key development focus in recent years, such as its 0-fried "Fresh Q Noodles" repeatedly mentioned in financial reports, and the "He Mian" launched at the 25th China Instant Food Conference.
From the perspective of packaging forms, low-priced bagged noodles remain the largest component of instant noodles, but although this segment is large in scale, its added value and profit margins are far lower than mid-to-high-priced products. Therefore, whether it is Master Kong, Uni-President, Baixiang, or Jinmailang, strengthening the product structure of mid-to-high-end products will be the top priority for future performance growth.
Master Kong stated that in the first half of the year, the selling price and structure of instant noodles improved. In other words, the proportion of mid-to-high-end products is continuously increasing. For Uni-President, the mid-to-high-end product "Tang Daren" has already overshadowed its core product "Laotan Sauerkraut Noodles," which may be an important measure for Uni-President China Holdings to maintain growth in its instant noodle business.
Although Baixiang and Jinmailang are non-listed companies and their internal product sales structures are unknown to the outside, from their actions, chicken soup noodles have become Baixiang's signature product, reflecting its product structure adjustment.
In fact, although packaging forms and noodle blocks are the most important product carriers for instant noodles, consumers' attention to seasoning packets is not weaker than the former.
Currently, including Master Kong, Uni-President China Holdings, and Jinmailang, all have launched ultra-high-end products. Of course, an important measure for this high-end positioning is the presentation of seasoning packets. Various FD freeze-drying technologies, RP freshness-locking technologies... all possible means are used to incorporate high-end, fresh ingredients into instant noodles.
From the popular instant noodle products at Sam's Club, it is common to see multiple seasoning packets in one box, including not only the usual soup base but also vegetable packets, meat packets, flavor packets...
But one thing is that the higher-end the instant noodles, the more "inconvenient" they seem. For example, in the past, you could just open the package, add the seasoning, and pour in boiling water. Now, some high-end instant noodles require not only 3-5 minutes of cooking but also separately blanching the seasoning packets... This somewhat "discourages" consumers who choose instant noodles for convenience, and more importantly, the prices of these products are not lower than takeout.


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 让消费更纯粹的
- Published: 2025-09-14
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/instant-noodles-remain-fragrant-05755730/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xhrbXV3Nye0cAGU04J8fQQ

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