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Nong Shim, South Korea's largest producer of processed foods, said Monday it will raise the prices of its popular Shin Ramen and other instant noodles by W100 starting Wednesday, citing the rising cost of ingredients including flour (US$1=W944).
At the news of the impending price hikes, Korea's major discount outlets were swarmed with people trying to stock up on noodle products.
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Customers crowd the instant noodle section at the Seoul Station branch of Lotten Mart on Tuesday at the news of the impending price hikes.
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Korea's largest discount store E-Mart said on Tuesday that sales of instant noodles doubled to 200,000 units on Monday from the same day a week earlier. On Tuesday, its noodle sales jumped six times the average, with Shin Ramen selling out in several stores.
Home Plus also sold 177,085 units of Shin Ramen on Monday, more than three times the 51,630 units sold Monday last week. Lotte Mart sold 20,000 plastic packs of five Shin noodles on Monday, compared with 9,700 packs sold Monday last week.
E-Mart, however, said it will not raise its retail prices of instant noodles at once. The discount chain is currently in negotiations with Nong Shim to decide when and how much to raise the prices and it isn't likely to increase them until it sells out all its stock, an E-Mart official said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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