Taste buds satisfied in just three minutes? A nutritious, savory, and above all cooked snack for people who haven’t a minute to waste? Come on!... Unless, of course, we’re talking noodles here: instant noodles.
For those who haven’t yet hazarded an encounter with this particular variety of instant cuisine, here is what you do. Pour scalding hot water into a container of dried noodles. Add sauce, spice, and seasonings to taste. Leave for three minutes: enough time for the various flavors to infuse the water, which in turn seasons and tenderizes the basic ingredient, and Presto! That’s all it takes to produce a mouthwatering combination which many local residents have come to view as a meal of choice rather than merely one of convenience. Liu Pi-fang (劉必芳), a sixty-one-year-old housewife, is one such enthusiast. “I love instant noodles and eat them for lunch or dinner about three times a week. Seafood flavor’s my favorite.”
High-tech cost-savings—King Car Food realized it had to invest in cutting-edge machinery if it wanted to keep ahead of constantly changing customer demands.
For a long time the options were stark: Get up at dawn, raid a nearby market, and then spend hours slaving over a hot stove, or eat out someplace where the size of the bill varied inversely with the quality of the service. Rather than stand in line for an expensive meal that was slow in coming, people soon began to appreciate the alternative of rustling up some thing quick, convenient, and economical at home or in the office. Instant noodles fitted the bill perfectly.
Typically accompanied by a bundle of sauces, spices, a pinch of dried vegetables, and a pack of freeze-dried meat, instant noodles provide not just taste and bulk, but also nutrition—an important factor with today’s increasingly health-conscious customers.
In the past, instant noodles were mainly regarded as a kind of halfway decent snack. But a growing number of consumers such as Liu Pi-fang are viewing them as part of their basic diet, particularly at lunchtime. Some people even regard a packet of instant noodles as an essential constituent of their life-support system, toting them whenever they leave home for business or pleasure. Instant noodles can fill a stomach anytime and everywhere. Some athletes never regard their preparations for overseas tourneys as complete until they’ve stashed a store of instant noodles at the bottom of the suitcase: What would happen if the foreign food didn’t agree with their stomachs?
Annual production of instant noodles in Taiwan soared to 48.5 million cases last year. With twelve bowls per case, that made per capita consumption for the island’s 21 million people a hefty twenty-seven bowls.
Students preparing to say a fond goodbye to their families and friends before embarking on a course of study abroad comprise another large market. Not only do they pack instant noodles in their luggage, their families keep them topped up with supplies throughout their studies. Don’t foreign countries have instant noodles? Sure they do—but only the Taiwan variety can provide that savory, poignant memory of Home.
More than a quarter of a century has gone by since the Japanese first put instant noodles onto the Taiwan market in 1967. The business grew steadily, with twenty-three producers islandwide by 1971. Competition took its inevitable toll on the number of companies, but 1987 saw another upswing, and today the island boasts a total of eighteen manufacturers.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, production has grown steadily over the past ten years, from 24.6 million cases in 1984 to 48.5 million cases in 1994. (A case contains either thirty cellophane-wrapped packs or twelve bowls.) Annual sales have shot up from US$129 million in 1984 to US$295 million in 1994. Of the eighteen manufacturers, President Enterprises Corp. reigns as Taiwan’s largest. Each month it produces on average 1.5 million cases and posts sales of US$11.5 million, giving it almost half the market. Three other companies—(Ve Wong Corp., Vedan Enterprises Corp., and Wei Lih Food Industrial Co.)—share another forty-five percent.
A stack of dried noodles awaits packaging by President Enterprises, which holds almost half the market. Some dried noodles are eaten raw, a snack popular with children of any age.
In the early days things stayed nice and simple; there were few flavors, and packaging was basic. The best-known product, Prince Noodle, made by Ve Wong, was typical: noodles in a small cellophane pack, with a choice of two or three different flavorings. Most Thirtysome-things fondly recall their primary school days when they would crush a pack of Prince Noodle and munch the crispy fragments raw, without sauces, spices or even hot water—a sweet ‘n’ savory memory of Taiwan society during the 1970s.
To satisfy rapidly changing consumer tastes, instant noodle manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to meet demands for new flavors and more attractive packaging. There have been remarkable changes in recent years. Today’s customers can choose from among wheat flour noodles, rice flour noodles, rice noodles, and bean vermicelli. And there are many more flavorings than before. For example, the Chiang Chiang Kun brand offers black peppered beef, hot and sour flavoring, barbecue sauce, and paprika beef—all produced by Ve Wong to satisfy their younger customers’ desire for stronger, more exciting tastes.
Where’s the beef? According to Su En-ming, marketing manager for King Car Food, “Customers can’t accept way-out, non-traditional flavors.”
Many meat-free varieties, prepared with vegetable oil, draw vegetarian customers. And one best-selling product, Ta Pu Tieh, comes in either ginseng chicken flavor or sesame oil chicken flavor; this uses top quality ingredients, based on traditional Chinese ideas of obtaining the nutrition needed by pregnant women. Such non-mainline products sell in quantity and command high prices. Ta Pu Tieh costs NT$50 [US$2] per 270g bowl.
Kai Wan Hsiao (the brand name means “to make a joke”) doesn’t just nourish the body, it also provides food for the brain. Its packaging contains a joke, in keeping with the name, to keep customers entertained while they’re waiting for their noodles to steep. (More conventionally, the pack also includes pork, beef or seafood flavors along with the noodles.)
If flavors have diversified in a hundred ways, packaging is not far behind. In the early years, instant noodles came in small plastic bags. Nowadays there are four basic varieties of packaging: packs, small bowls, large bowls, and paper cups.
Packs, the original containers, combine low price with small volume. They have the advantage of simplicity, being nothing more than brightly decorated crinkly plastic wrappers. But, unlike other varieties of packaging, they don’t come with chopsticks or bowls, making them somewhat less convenient for customers. Large bowl products, offering more noodles, vegetables, and meat, tend to sell best among laborers and others with arduous working lives who seek economical but nevertheless satisfying meals. At the other end of the spectrum, small-volume, biodegradable paper cups target female customers. The environmentally friendly angle is an added plus.
Last year, eighteen local producers shared islandwide sales of US$295 million. The three largest spent a total of US$12 million on TV ads.
Cost? Even the biggest, most expensive bowl of instant noodles is going to set customers back less than the same volume of its fresh counterpart. Average prices range from NT$50 [US$2] for a jumbo bowl of instant noodles to NT$10 [forty cents] for one small paper cup; with this compare bowls at NT$70 [US$2.60] at a typical vendor’s stall, or NT$110 [US$4.20] in a small restaurant. The cheapest product on the market is still Ve Wong’s Prince Noodle. Now in many more flavors, it costs only NT$5 [nineteen cents] per pack and is as popular with primary school kids as it ever was.
Generally speaking, January, February, July, and August are peak seasons for the instant noodle business. Wu Kun-lin (吳昆林), section manager of the Food Division of President Enterprises, explains it this way: “Customers always think about instant noodles on chilly days, and they often stock up when typhoons approach.” During such periods, the company can achieve sales of US$15.3 million per month, vastly higher than at other times.
According to a 1992 study carried out by the privately funded Food Industry Research and Development Institute, the main consumers of instant noodles are high school and college students, and working people aged from twenty to thirty. Roughly speaking, beef flavored products are the most popular with all customer groups. "That’s because beef flavor is the oldest and customers are used to it," says Su En-ming (蘇恩民), director of King Car Food Industrial Co.’s Marketing Division. Other favored flavors? After beef, customers tend to opt for pork and seafood.
Manufacturers are constantly bringing new products onto the market in an effort to create and strengthen customer brand loyalty. President Enterprises, for example, puts out three or four innovations a year. Ve Wong, on the other hand, introduces new products at irregular intervals, based on its market research. “We always do market analysis to find out customers’ needs before we bring our new products onto the market,” Hsieh Cheng-hsiung (謝正雄), Ve Wong’s spokesman.
Athletes, busy housewives, students going overseas—The range of customers for instant noodles is endless, and their tastes are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Some products fail, despite the research. King Car Food Industrial, established in 1981, branched into instant noodles in 1993. The company stumbled when it tried to push a unique, brand-new flavor: pizza. “Customers can’t accept way-out, non-traditional flavors,” says Su En-ming.
Fast-approaching market saturation makes it difficult for new manufacturers to get a start, no matter how much they spend on advertising, and that figure can be huge. King Car Food Industrial, for example, says it spends about US$7.7 million per year on TV commercials, more than President Enterprises (US$3.85 million) and Ve Wong (US$1.15 million) together. So, how about new markets? Anyone wanting a mega-sized “instant” success story need look no further than across the Taiwan Straits, as Ting Hsin International Group’s experiences show.
Ting Hsin International was set up in 1958 to produce cooking-oil. In August 1992 it made a bold decision to diversify and began manufacturing instant noodles in Mainland China. Its product, Kang Shih Fu, is now all the rage on the mainland, although it remains virtually unknown here. Sales have grown from US$288 million in 1994 to US$403 million so far this year. The company produces a range of ten flavors, including braised beef, shrimp, mushroom chicken, and barbecue sauce. Prices are much lower than in Taiwan. A pack of instant noodles on the mainland costs RMB 1.8 [twenty-one cents] and a bowl costs RMB3 [thirty-six cents]. Pricing wasn’t the only important decision the company had to make. “Taiwanese and mainland people have different tastes,” says Chen Tai-chun (陳代均), vice president of Ting Hsin’s Business Planning Department. “Mainland people prefer lighter flavors and larger volume.”
In addition to its two factories in Tianjin and Guangzhou, Ting Hsin plans to build seven new plants in Hangzhou and Chongqing this year. Its success has made other companies keen to enter the mainland market, President Enterprises among them, along with Wei-Chuan Foods and Vedan Enterprises.
Despite all the good news, there are still problems. One example: Instant noodles don’t by themselves contain enough nutrition for people’s daily needs, being short of vitamins such as calcium, iron, and phosphorus. But, as Ve Wong’s Hsieh Cheng-hsiung points out, “This problem isn’t confined to instant noodles: If you eat too much of anything it’s going to cause nutritional imbalance.” He adds, “Also, we have made some improvements.”
His company is not alone in that. Most producers have been focusing their efforts on improving the nutritional content of instant noodles by adding meat and vegetables that have been sterilized and carefully packed. However, this may not be enough. Some customers complain that TV commercials exaggerate the amount of meat and vegetables contained in various products. Nutritionists recommend that consumers eat their noodles with additional cooked vegetables and perhaps an egg, while fresh fruit eaten for dessert can provide a valuable vitamin supplement. “The nutritional content of instant noodles is not enough for daily needs,” says Chang Le-chi (章樂綺), director of the Department of Food Nutrition at Veterans General Hospital. “So I don’t think it’s good enough for a meal.” Li Mei-chuan (李美娟), a thirty-four year old working lady in Taipei, would agree. “Instant noodles are fine, once in a while. Usually we eat them as a midnight snack, though sometimes we’ll have them for dinner if I come home tired from work. I add vegetables, eggs, shrimp, and whatever else I can find in the refrigerator.”
So what’s new? Vegetarians, pregnant women, and even nutritionists worried about high salt content can find satisfaction in today’s instant noodle varieties
Then there is the long-held and deep-seated concern that instant noodles contain harmful preservatives. Another oftrepeated charge is that the oil for frying the noodles is used again and again. The reaction of Lin Hsi-chuan (林西全) is typical: "Instant noodles contain too many salts and too much oil and starch, so I don’t allow my children to eat them.” Chang Le-chi lends some support to this. “Instant noodles do contain a lot of salt, MSG, and calories. I try to discourage people from eating them regularly."
But President Enterprise’s Wu Kun-lin is reassuring. “Customers don’t need to worry about the [preservative] problem,” he urges, “because we use vitamin E instead of preservatives to store our instant noodles.” He adds that his company always tests the oil every two hours to check whether it’s still usable. Most people probably adopt Li Mei-chuan’s commonsense approach: “Yes, there may be preservatives in them, but since I only eat them once or twice a month I don’t really mind.”
Ve Wong’s Hsieh Cheng-hsiung—“Whether products are successful depends on that tiny pack of assorted sauces and spices.”
"The instant noodle industry doesn’t involve difficult technology," says Ve Wong’s Hsieh Cheng-hsiung. “Whether products are successful depends on that tiny pack of assorted sauces and spices.” Manufacturers can expect continuing demands for more flavors and more attractive packaging to attract and satisfy different consumer sectors. “Green” considerations will also play an increasing role, as demonstrated by a new product, Han Chao Wu Lung Mien, from King Car Industrial. This uses fresh noodles in place of the traditional fried variety, and is aimed at people who prefer natural foods. Thanks to modern technology, the product can be stored safely at room temperature.
The instant noodle business is big, and growing fast, but its full potential can only be realized by those with nimble reactions to changing consumer demand. One thing is certain: Customers can look forward to an ever-increasing range of choices in this branch of the three-minute meal market.