HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam has a huge domestic market for instant noodles with sales of nearly VNĐ20 trillion (US$888.9million) per year.

According to Euromonitor, a foreign research firm, Việt Nam’s instant noodle market had a value at VNĐ24.3 trillion in 2015, 10 per cent higher than 2014.

The value was expected to grow to VNĐ25.7 trillion in 2016 and VNĐ26.6 trillion in 2017.

There are 50 enterprises engaged in producing instant noodles in Việt Nam. Seventy per cent of the revenue has come from Acecook, Masan Consumer and Asia Foods, the three largest instant noodles producers.

Acecook Việt Nam is the largest domestic producer of instant noodles, accounting for 40 per cent of the market. The company registered a revenue of VNĐ9 trillion in 2014 and VNĐ9.3 trillion in sales in 2015.

The second largest enterprise, Masan Consumer, held 25 per cent of the local market share in 2015. It gained VNĐ5 trillion from packed instant noodle sales.

Meanwhile, the World International Noodle Association (WINA) has reported that consumption of instant noodles in Việt Nam reduced over the past two years following a downtrend on the world market. Consumption dropped from 5.2 billion packets in 2013, to 5 billion in 2014, and 4.8 billion in 2015.

Inaccurate information about the product has made customers wary and resulted in reduced sales, the association reported.

However, Kajiwara Junichi, general director of Acecook Việt Nam, said consumption of instant noodles had recovered in the first half of this year.

In the first six months of this year, Acecook Việt Nam sold 1.3 billion packets and exported 100 million packets, 9 per cent higher than the same period last year, he said. The company expected sales of 2.9 billion packets this year.

Việt Nam has the best production costs so the company produces its instant noodles here and exports it to 46 countries and territories, he said. In the future, the company would promote cup noodles due to its high demand.

Việt Nam is the fourth largest consumer of instant noodles in the world, after China, Indonesia and Japan, according to the association. – VNS