Indonesia set to export more instant noodles

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.