TAIPEI: The nation’s instant noodle production value last year increased 14.6 percent year-on-year to NT$11.5 billion (US$375.2 million), the second consecutive year of annual expansion, suggesting that domestic consumers have moved on from a series of tainted oil scandals in 2014, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The figure also represented the second-highest production value in the instant noodle industry and the largest annual increase since 2008, ministry data showed.
“The strong result reflected the regaining of confidence by consumers in the quality of instant noodles,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan said by telephone.
The domestic market last year accounted for 89.1 percent of instant noodle sales, Wang said.
The highest production value was recorded in 2012, when the figure hit NT$11.8 billion, followed by two straight years of annual decline because of the food safety scandals, she added.
Since then, instant noodle makers have stepped up efforts to attract consumers by developing new flavors or initiating limited sales of selected products over the past few years, Wang said.
An increasing number of vloggers who teach people how to eat food in “innovative ways,” such as making a hamburger with instant noodles, has also helped spur market demand, she said.
In addition to recovering domestic consumer confidence, rising demand from China supported the yearly increase in production value, Wang added.
The nation’s exports of instant noodles last year climbed 2.5 percent to US$48.98 million, with shipments to China accounting for the largest portion at 60 percent, the data showed.
Hong Kong was the second-largest export destination, accounting for 9.8 percent, while the US was third at 9.2 percent, Wang said.
The entire output of the nation’s food manufacturing industry last year totaled NT$509.2 billion, with instant noodles contributing 2.2 percent, up from 1.68 percent in 2015, the ministry said.
