China's packaged-food sector looks abroad

Shanghai

THE two-car train chugs out of Master Kong's Dream Exploration Park in eastern China, filled with children giddy from shooting cartoon cabbages to dunk in animated pots of instant noodles. Next stop: A factory churning out 4,000 packets of the real thing every minute.

They may not inspire the same levels of awe as Shanghai Disneyland, but the noodle-themed playground and nearby assembly lines are propelling Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp into its own world of tomorrow. The owner of the Master Kong brand makes half the 3.4 million tonnes of instant noodles eaten annually in China, yet revenue is stagnating as middle-class consumers abandon the salty, fatty cups for healthier options. Tingyi is on a mission to reinvent the humble noodle, pouring millions of dollars into customer education, food science, Olympic Games sponsorships and Kung Fu Panda movie shorts to convince diners the cheap meal can be part of their gastronomic aspirations. "We want to continue to grow up, and 'premium up', with our Chinese consumers," Richard Chen, Tingyi's chief technology officer, said at the company's Shanghai research centre. "In a couple of years, we will be able to reach the gold standard, which is when you can't tell our noodles apart from what you would get in a noodle shop."