Nongshim to expand facility instead of new plant in U.S.

[Photo by Yonhap]

South Korea’s Nongshim has chosen the Noksan National Industrial Complex in Busan as a strategic base for food export, pivoting from its original plans to build a third factory in the United States. The high U.S. labor and land costs led to a shift in investment focus back to its home country, sources said. Instead of opening a new factory in the United States, the company will expand its second plant in Los Angeles (LA).

Nongshim earlier announced a 229 billion won ($166 million) investment to construct a new logistics center in the Samnam Logistics Complex in Ulsan by 2027.

“We are actively considering building a dedicated export factory for ramyun in Busan to strengthen our linkage with the Ulsan logistics complex,” a company official said, adding that specific details about the schedule for the new factory and the investment amount are yet to be finalized.

Nongshim’s increased investment in ramyun factories is driven by faster-than-expected growth in overseas sales. The company’s overseas sales hit 1.25 trillion won in 2023, accounting for 37 percent of its total revenue. Sales are increasing specifically, and in the U.S. market in particular.

According to market research firm Euromonitor, Nongshim held a 25.2 percent market share in the U.S. instant ramyun market in 2021, second only to Japan’s Toyo Suisan with 47.7 percent, and ahead of Japan’s Nissin with 17.6 percent.

The Financial Times (FT) reported that while ramyun was traditionally popular among Asian Americans, an increasing number of young people and Hispanics in the United States are now embracing spicy foods, making them the new primary consumer demographic. The newspaper highlighted that Walmart plans to move Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun from the Asian niche corner to the mainstream food display, calling it a “symbolic shift.”

In addition to its U.S. success, Nongshim has seen rapid growth in ramyun sales in regions without local production facilities, such as Japan and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, other Korean companies are also ramping up facility investments to meet the rising global demand for Korean ramyun. Samyang Foods, for example, is expanding its second factory in South Korea’s Miryang with a 183.8 billion won investment by the first half of 2025, driven by the continued popularity of its globally successful “Buldak” stir-fried noodles.