Advance Journal of Food Science and Technology 12(8): 412-420, 2016 DOI:10.19026/ajfst.12.2990 ISSN: 2042-4868; e-ISSN: 2042-4876 © 2016 Maxwell Scientific Publication Corp. Submitted: June 14, 2015 Accepted: July 8, 2015 Published: November 15, 2016 Research Article A Market Study for Dried Noodles in China: Current Situation and Trend in Supply 1, 2 Rui Liu, 1Yingquan Zhang, 1Bo Zhang and 1Yimin Wei 1Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, 2Hebei Jinshahe Institute of Food Industrial Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100081, P.R. China Abstract: The aim was to study the current situation in the supply of dried noodles in China, analyzed regional disparity and trend of dried noodles markets and explored effects of variety and packaging on noodles price. Data were collected via the survey method in four representative cities in China, included Beijing, Hangzhou, Changsha and Hefei. Based on the quota sampling and simple random sampling methods, supermarkets and retail stores were selected. The brands, varieties, producers, origin, packaging style, net content and price of the dried noodles presented on the shelves were examined. No leading brand was observed in Beijing in 2010, while some brands showed distinct comparative advantages, with a large market share in 2012. Some traditional regional brands, such as “Kemen” and “Fengda”, had become nation-wide brands and hold a large proportion in many cities. As new brands from multinational enterprises, “Arawana” and “Jinmailang” were growing fast. The price of dried noodles showed some regional difference. Dried noodles in Beijing and Hangzhou, two developed cities of China, showed higher price than inland second-tier cities. The dried noodles price and the proportion of high-end products significantly increased from 2010 to 2012. Competition at high end of the noodles market was getting tougher than that at the low end. Both the variety and packaging type had significant effects on noodles price. Dried noodles targeted at children or with seasoning bags showed significantly higher price. The dried noodles with better package had a higher price. Keywords: Brand share, China, dried noodles, market supply, packaging, product price INTRODUCTION According to “2011 Chinese Dried Noodles Industry Development Report” released by Chinese Noodles as a traditional staple food enjoys great Institute of Food Science and Technology (2012), popularity in China and some Asian countries and are Jinshahe Flour Manufacturing Co., Ltd. located in consumed worldwide. The importance of noodles in Hebei Province ranked 1 st in China, with 28 million Asian diet is significant. Currently, an average of 20- tons of noodles being produced in 2011. Kemen 50% of total wheat flour consumption in many Noodles Manufacturing Co., Ltd. located in Hunan countries occurs in the form of noodles (Hou, 2010). Province ranked the 2 nd with the production of 19.26 McKee (2009) noted that, with wide acceptance of million tons, followed by Hebei Yongsheng Food Co., noodles worldwide, the noodles product is one of a Ltd., Zhengzhou Boda Flour Industry Co., Ltd. and number of wheat-based foods whose globalization China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs continues to stimulate international trade in the world’s Corporation Co., Ltd. Two types of dried noodles are top-ranked grains in terms of harvested area. Dried mainly produced in China according to Chinese noodles manufactured by mechanized assembly line, Industrial Standard SB/T 10068-92 and SB/T 10069-92 have much higher commercial value than other noodle released by Ministry of Commerce classified them as types (Liu et al ., 2003). As at 2012, dried noodles namely “ordinary dried noodles” and “varied dried output in China was recorded at 7.0 million tons and noodles”. The ordinary noodles are only made of wheat about 9.0-10.0 million tons of wheat was used for its flour, water and salt (alkaline), while the varied noodles production (Chinese Institute of Food Science and have other ingredients such as eggs, beans, corn, Technology, 2013). In the past five years, dried noodles buckwheat, vegetables, milk and additives. At present, industry has expanded sharply, the business gets bigger there are a great many brands and varieties of dried and more profitable, more also, the consumption of noodles in China market, the product price and physic- dried noodles increased significantly. chemical qualities varies widely (Liu et al ., 2012). Corresponding Author: Yimin Wei, Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, P.R. China This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 412 Adv. J. Food Sci. Technol., 12(8): 412-420, 2016 Fig. 1: Distribution of surveyed four cities in China. The ● indicates the surveyed city The effects of various flour component and positioning of the various products and improvement of processes on the quality of Chinese noodles had been market share. studies widely (Liu et al ., 2003; Fu, 2008; Ye et al ., 2009; Zhang et al ., 2011; Li et al ., 2012). However, MATERIALS AND METHODS the current conditions and trend of China’s dried noodles market, the biggest noodles market in the world Basic information and process of investigation: are not clear yet. In this study, in light of the dried According to the presentations from “The 13 th China’s noodles supply condition of major cities across China, Flour Product Convention” organized by Chinese the authors analyzed regional disparity and trend Institute of Food Science and Technology and the of dried noodles industry and explored the factors communication between the authors and other affecting products pricing. Two market surveys were participants in this conference, included officials, carried out in Beijing in October 2012 and January entrepreneurs and scientists, four representative cities in 2010 respectively and the noodles markets of Hangzhou China with high consumption and crowed market in city in Zhejiang Province, Changsha city in Hunan dried noodles were selected as surveyed areas, include Province and Hefei city in Anhui Province were Beijing, the capital of People’s Republic of China, investigated in 2012 (Fig. 1), with the aim to learn Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, Changsha, about the situation and change of brand, the capital of Hunan province and Hefei, the capital of market share of main brands, variety, product Anhui Province. Two market surveys were carried out packaging and price of dried noodles and effects of in Beijing in October 2012 and January 2010, variety and packaging on noodles price. This study can respectively. This include 108 large-and medium-sized provide dried noodles manufacturers and distributors chained supermarkets in the urban districts and with up-to-date information for design of new products, suburban counties of Beijing selected in 2012 and 50 413 Adv. J. Food Sci. Technol., 12(8): 412-420, 2016 Fig. 2: Distribution of surveyed supermarkets in downtown Beijing: (a) 2010, (b) 2012. The ● indicates the surveyed supermarket supermarkets in 2010 (Fig. 2), based on the quota France's Auchan, Britain's Tesco, Germany's Metro sampling and simple random sampling methods. The Group, South Korea's Lotte Mart and Japan's Yokado supermarkets are distributed across eight different and domestic retailer such as Wumart, Vanguard, districts in Beijing. They are Dongcheng, Xicheng, Century-mart, BHG, Merry mart and Chaoshifa Haidian, Chaoyang, Shijingshan, Fengtai, Changping Supermarket. and Huairou under the jurisdiction of Beijing city. The In May to November 2012, 71, 46 and 38 supermarkets where the surveys were carried out supermarkets and retail stores in Hangzhou, Changsha include foreign chains such as Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and Hefei were examined, respectively. 414 Adv. J. Food Sci. Technol., 12(8): 412-420, 2016 Table 1: Top 10 dried noodles brands for market coverage and shelf share in 2010 Beijing Rank Brand Market coverage (%) Rank Brand Shelf share (%) 1 Kemen 84.0 1 Fengda 15.9 2 Fengda 76.0 2 Kemen 9.0 3 Biomate 74.0 3 Ruonan 7.5 4 Xiangxue 46.0 4 Biomate 6.7 4 Maitiancun 46.0 5 Xiangxue 4.5 6 Wangjia 44.0 6 Jinjian 3.6 6 Weidu 44.0 7 Wangjia 3.5 8 Junen 42.0 8 Junen 3.4 9 Jinjian 38.0 9 Chunhui 3.1 10 Ruonan 36.0 10 Jvefoo 3.0 10 Boda 36.0 10 Savorily life 3.0 Table 2: Top 10 dried noodles brands for market coverage and shelf share in 2012 Beijing Rank Brand Market coverage (%) Rank Brand Shelf share (%) 1 Kemen 93.5 1 Kemen 22.8 2 Fengda 81.5 2 Fengda 16.9 3 Biomate 74.1 3 Arawana 5.2 4 Arawana 55.6 4 Biomate 5.0 5 Xiangxue 46.3 5 Xiangxue 4.3 6 Jinmailang 41.7 6 Savorily life 3.4 7 Boda 38.0 7 Jinshahe 2.9 8 Junen 35.2 8 Jinmailang 2.9 9 Saibeixue 34.3 9 Chunhui 2.7 10 Chunhui 33.3 10 Boda 2.3 10 Jvefoo 33.3 The brands, varieties, producers, origin, packaging Many flour and instant noodle enterprises entered the style, net content and price of the dried noodles dried noodles industry, including some multinational presented on the shelves in the selected shops were corporations, such as Wilmar International Limited, investigated. Uni-President Enterprise Corporations, Nissan Jinmailang Foods Co. Ltd. and Hebei Wudeli Flour Brand evaluation method: The market share of dried Mill Group Corporations. noodles brands was evaluated based on market The dried noodles brand of “Kemen” produced by coverage rate and shelf share. Market coverage rate = Kemen Noodles Manufacturing Corporation in Hunan Brand frequency/Number of investigated shops×100%.