Indonesia set to export more instant noodles

By Riyadi

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Indonesia should be able to export more instant noodles in the coming years following the government's approvals for the operation of 13 new noodles companies, a senior official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade said here on Thursday.

Director General of Chemical, Agriculture and Forest Products Industries Gatot Ibnu Santosa said Indonesia, the world's second largest instant noodles producer after China, could not export significant amounts of noodles due to the fast growth of domestic consumption in the past.

"Except last year, consumption had always exceeded production since 1990. That's why we could not export significant amounts of instant noodles," Gatot told the opening of the second World Ramen Summit, organized by the International Ramen Manufacturers Association (IRMA). 'Ramen' is the Japanese word for noodles.

More than 100 executives of instant noodle producers from 12 countries participated in the two-day event.

Currently, Indonesia has 16 instant noodles producers operating in 11 provinces, producing 8.6 billion packs or servings per annum with more than 50 brands. The giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur dominates the market with more than 90 percent.

When the 13 new companies start production after the turn of the century, Gatot said, they would contribute 68 percent more output.

Indofood president Eva Riyanti Hutapea, also the newly-elected director general of IRMA for a two-year term, said exports had become an attractive alternative following slumping domestic demand.

But she warned that Indonesian noodles producers needed to improve the quality of their products if they wanted to enter the world market.

"That's why we want to have an international standard for noodles. That would become one of my priorities in IRMA," she told journalists on the sidelines of the summit.

The two-day summit has also drafted proposals on instant noodle standards to be presented to Codex Alimentarius, the Rome- based body which sets global food products standards. Codex, which operates under the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Health Organization, is currently drafting international hygiene and food standards for noodles.

Eva also noted that Indofood was still firm with its proposal that the new international standards for noodles should also include a clause that requires all noodles to be produced in line with Islamic halal dietary laws.

If the proposal of making the halal certification becomes compulsory, international noodle producers who want to sell their noodles in Indonesia would also have to have the halal label on their products.

The halal certificate is awarded to food products that pass a series of laboratory tests based on Islamic principles.

Eva rejected an argument that the halal certification would serve as a trade barrier for foreign noodle producers trying to enter Indonesia.

"Look, we are only taking care of the 90 percent of our consumers who are Muslim. They are most concerned about this halal label," she said.

In Indonesia, instant noodles first hit the market in 1969 with the Supermi brand produced by PT Lima Satu Sankyu Industri Pangan. But instant noodles did not achieve wider popularity among the people until the early 1980s when local flavor products were introduced.

Since then consumption has kept growing at the rate of around 10 percent per annum, reaching a high point in 1997 at about 8.7 billion packs, before sinking to about 8 billion packs last year when the effects of the economic crisis started to bite the industry.

Currently, Indonesia's instant noodles consumption per capita stood at 39.1 packs last year, down from 42.3 packs in 1997. The figure is expected to recover slightly to 41.9 percent this year.

According to Indofood, the favorite flavors are Onion Chicken, Special Fried Noodles, Chicken Soto and Special Chicken, followed by meatballs and chicken curry.

"It is obvious that chicken-based flavors are the most acceptable flavors among Indonesian consumers," Christ Iwan Arsianto of Indofood, who presented the development of Indonesian instant noodles industry at the summit.

Momofuku Ando, the founder of instant noodles and chairman of Nissin Food Co Ltd of Japan, agreed and said that chicken flavor is the most acceptable instant noodles flavor not only in Indonesia but also across the world.