Japan: Ramen noodles 'reign' as rice prices hit record high

Rice prices in Japan have risen to record levels, causing consumers to turn away from this traditional dish due to cost concerns.

Faced with this situation, many restaurant chains and food companies in this country are quickly turning to noodle dishes as an attractive alternative.

Antworks, which operates the Densetsu no Sutadonya restaurant chain famous for its pork bowls, opened its first ramen restaurant in Tokyo last May.

Antworks plans to open three more ramen restaurants next February to diversify its business.

A spokesman for the Tokyo-based restaurant chain said a pork cutlet rice set with miso soup and a raw egg now costs 890 yen (about $6), up significantly from 630 yen in 2021.

The spokesman said customers might hesitate if prices were pushed above 1,000 yen, while a ramen dish is 100 to 150 yen cheaper than a pork rice dish.

Also pushing into the ramen business is Yoshinoya Holdings Co., the parent company of the popular beef bowl restaurant chain Yoshinoya Co., which believes the beef bowl restaurant market in Japan is saturated.

Norihiro Ozawa, executive vice president of Yoshinoya Holdings, said the ramen business helps the company balance ingredient costs with dishes other than rice and meat.

Rice prices in Japan have doubled from a year ago and remain high after an initial spike due to a poor harvest, according to Japan's Ministry of Agriculture , Forestry and Fisheries.

The average price of rice in Japan was 4,176 yen per 5 kg in the week to June 8, despite the government having to release rice reserves.

At supermarkets, consumers are also actively looking for rice alternatives. Sales of frozen udon noodles rose about 10% in value in April and May compared with the same period last year, according to TableMark Co.

Similarly, Kikkoman Corp. also saw sales of packaged udon noodle soup and related ingredients rise 10% in the three months through May from a year earlier.

Even yogurt products are doing well in this environment. Meiji Holdings Co. said sales of its flagship Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt have maintained growth of about 10% each month since April last year.

"Western-style breakfast foods such as bread and cereals have become more popular" amid rising rice prices, said a Meiji Holdings official./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/nhat-ban-my-ramen-len-ngoi-khi-gia-gao-tang-cao-ky-luc-post1045586.vnp