Japan's leading instant noodle maker Nissin Foods Holdings Co. will enter the vegetable beverage market in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China, tapping its sales network to capture potential demand from health-conscious consumers.

The company says Nissin Foods Co., its Hong Kong subsidiary, will establish a joint venture in Hong Kong next month with Kagome Co., a Japanese juice and sauce ingredient maker, to import and sell Kagome's vegetable drinks in the three regions.

The joint venture with a registered capital of HK$5 million (US$640,000) is owned 70 percent by Nissin's Hong Kong unit and 30 percent by Kagome based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in central Japan.

A tomato juice and three flavors of vegetable and fruit mixed beverages, all Japanese-made under the Kagome brand, will be put on the three markets, according to a joint statement.

Kiyotaka Ando, CEO of Nissin's manufacturing and sales arm which was listed on the Hong Kong bourse last December, told NNA that the joint venture will strive to penetrate southern China first with the help of more than 1,000 Nissin sales staff in the mainland, in addition to the two Chinese territories.

[NNA/Kyodo]

"Soy milk drinks have seen solid sales in Hong Kong and the mainland amid growing health awareness," said Ando, the grandson of instant noodle inventor and company founder Momofuku Ando, expecting that soy milk-based vegetable and fruit drinks will be welcomed there if launched in the future.

In Hong Kong, a wide variety of Nissin's packaged instant noodles has been marketed at local style cafes, restaurants and supermarkets since their introduction in the mid-1980s, enjoying huge popularity.

The joint venture plans to use the Nissin subsidiary's sales force and diversified marketing channels to promote vegetable beverages, which have yet to become common in local markets except for Japanese-made drinks sold mainly at Japanese supermarkets, Ando said.

Nissin and Kagome will also consider locally producing vegetable drinks after ensuring sizable demand in the markets, he said. (NNA/Kyodo)