Food delivery drives instant noodle sales decline

[Photo: from VCG]

Recent reports show that Chinese people have lost their appetite for instant noodles, as sales have dropped a lot in the past three years.

According to the World Instant Noodles Association, sales of instant noodles fell by 8 billion packages from 2013 to 2016, resulting from the rapid growth of online meal ordering services in China.

Before 2011, instant noodles sales in China maintained double-digit growth for 18 consecutive years, reaching 46.22 billion in 2013. Since then, sales started to decline year after year, dropping to 38.52 billion in 2016, a decrease of as much as 16.66 percent.

According to the World Instant Noodles Association, consumption in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong has declined from 42,470 million servings in 2011 to 40,430 million servings in 2015.

Leading brand MasterKong of Tingyi saw its net profit plunge nearly 65 percent year-on-year to $69.7 million in the first half of this year. Its second-quarter profit saw the sharpest drop in ten years, down nearly 14 percent year-on-year to $1.54 billion.

In the first six months of this year, instant noodles accounted for almost 37 percent of the group's revenue, 52 percent of market-wide sales and 43 percent of market share, according to Nielsen's statistics. 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: China Daily)