Vietnamese lose appetite for instant noodles

Vietnam instant noodle market is losing steam, with both local and foreign producers experiencing heavy drops in sales.

A new report released by domestic instant noodles giant Miliket – Colusa Foodstuff JSC showed its revenue dipped to a five-year low of VND461 billion ($20.24 million) in 2016, down 3.5 percent from the previous year.

The company, which dominated the local instant noodles market in the 1970s and 1980s, reported an annual drop of 39 percent in pre-tax profit to VND25 billion last year, the lowest since 2012, despite the introduction of several new products.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based company is not the only one losing customers. Big brands such as Acecook, Masan and Asia Food are also having trouble.

Japan’s Acecook reported revenue falling from VND10 trillion in 2013 to VND9 trillion in 2015.

Masan, one of the biggest food companies in Vietnam, reported a drop in profits of 20 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period the previous year.

The World Instant Noodles Association ranks Vietnam the fourth biggest market in the world, with 4.8 billion packs consumed in 2015, after Japan, Indonesia and China. However, consumption has been falling since 2012.

Average personal consumption was the second highest in the world in 2016 after South Korea, with each person tucking into 55 packs a year.