Hua-Tiau Chiew Chicken Noodles (花雕雞麵) produced by Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL, 台灣菸酒) became the top-selling instant noodle brand at RT-Mart International Ltd (大潤發) last year.
The product rose six places from a year earlier to top the sales list, passing Wei Wei A-series Chicken Noodles (味味A排骨雞麵) produced by Vedan Enterprise Corp (味丹) and Wei Lih Jah Jan Men Noodles (維力炸醬麵) made by Wei Lih Food Industrial Co (維力食品).
TTL, which is the only producer of Hua-Tiau Chiew in Taiwan, uses 15-year old liquor made from fermented rice as a major ingredient in the instant noodle broth and the special flavor has pushed up sales, analysts said.
According to RT-Mart, one of the leading hypermarkets in Taiwan, almost 1.5 million packs of Hua-Tiau Chiew Chicken Noodles were sold at its outlets nationwide last year, generating more than NT$30 million (US$1.01 million) in sales.
On the online Good Market operated by Kuobrothers Corp (創業家兄弟) in Taiwan, Hua-Tiau Chiew Chicken Noodles earned 4.42 points from consumers on a five-point ratings scale.
TTL has said Hua-Tiau Chiew is light in flavor but rich in amino acids, making it a perfect food ingredient and a good match for instant noodles.
Wei Wei A series Chicken Noodles came in second place, up one from the 2016 rankings, with RT-Mark selling 1.4 million packs last year, while Wei Lih Jah Jan Men Noodles fell from the top position in 2016 to third with almost 1.3 million packs sold, according to RT-Mart.
The top three took advantage of their familiar flavors to beat imported products from Japan and South Korea. In addition, intensive promotional campaigns during the Ghost Festival also boosted sales of food items, including instant noodles, for worship.
The Ghost Festival falls on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which last year was Sept. 5.
TTL, Vedan and Wei Lih Food were the three largest winners in the RT-Mart instant noodles sale rankings last year, taking three, two and three spots, respectively, on the top 10 list.
TTL’s Sesame Oil Chicken Noodles (麻油雞麵) and Hua-Tiau Chiew Beef Noodles (花雕牛肉麵) with pickled cabbage were the fourth and fifth-biggest sellers in the rankings with about 800,000 packs sold each, RT-Mart data showed.
Vedan’s Wei Wei Premium Beef Noodles(味味一品原汁珍味牛肉麵) came in sixth ahead of Wei Lih Jah Jan Men heavyweight pack (110 grams vs. the standard 90 gram size), Ve Wong Instant Beef Noodles (味王牛肉麵) produced by Ve Wong Corp (味王), Wei Lih’s Yuanzu Chicken Noodles (原祖雞汁麵)and Wei Lih’s I Duo Zang Beef Noodles (一度贊紅燒牛肉麵), according to RT-Mart.
Meanwhile, PX Mart Ltd (全聯實業), one of the largest supermarket chains in Taiwan, said local consumers on average spend NT$89 to NT$100 per instant noodle purchase.
In 2016, the production value of instant noodles in Taiwan rose 20 percent from a year earlier to NT$11.5 billion, according to data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The ministry has not released the figures for last year.
TECH TITAN: Pandemic-era demand for semiconductors turbocharged the nation’s GDP per capita to surpass South Korea’s, but it still remains half that of Singapore Taiwan is set to surpass South Korea this year in terms of wealth for the first time in more than two decades, marking a shift in Asia’s economic ranks made possible by the ascent of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). According to the latest forecasts released on Thursday by the central bank, Taiwan’s GDP is expected to expand 4.55 percent this year, a further upward revision from the 4.45 percent estimate made by the statistics bureau last month. The growth trajectory puts Taiwan on track to exceed South Korea’s GDP per capita — a key measure of living standards — a
Samsung Electronics Co shares jumped 4.47 percent yesterday after reports it has won approval from Nvidia Corp for the use of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which marks a breakthrough for the South Korean technology leader. The stock closed at 83,500 won in Seoul, the highest since July 31 last year. Yesterday’s gain comes after local media, including the Korea Economic Daily, reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek (深度求索), and finally allows Samsung
READY TO HELP: Should TSMC require assistance, the government would fully cooperate in helping to speed up the establishment of the Chiayi plant, an official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its investment plans in Taiwan are “unchanged” amid speculation that the chipmaker might have suspended construction work on its second chip packaging plant in Chiayi County and plans to move equipment arranged for the plant to the US. The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier yesterday that TSMC had halted the construction of the chip packaging plant, which was scheduled to be completed next year and begin mass production in 2028. TSMC did not directly address whether construction of the plant had halted, but said its investment plans in Taiwan remain “unchanged.” The chipmaker started
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS