China's instant food sector is playing an increasingly important role in spurring the development of the country's food industry as more and more people choose to buy instant food products because of their convenience and ready-to-eat features.

Estimates show that the instant food sector will continue its strong momentum for development, benefiting from the policy of boosting domestic demand, a large consumer group and an increasing disposable income.

In the "12th Five-Year Development Plan for Food Industry" jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) late last year, it is stated that the country will accelerate the development of its instant food industry between 2011 and 2015. The industry's production value will hit 530 billion yuan (US$) by 2015, with an annual growth rate of 30 percent.

Sales in the four sectors, namely those of fast-frozen rice and flour products, instant noodles, other instant staple foods at ambient temperature and snacks, will reach 120 billion yuan (US$19.05 billion), 100 billion yuan (US$15.9 billion), 80 billion yuan (US$12.7 billion) and 100 billion yuan (US$15.9 billion) by 2015, respectively.

In addition, there will be ten large-scaled instant food producers, with their sales exceeding 10 billion yuan (US$1.59 billion).

The instant noodles business will also play a dominant role. According to the Flour Product Branch of Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST), China ranks number one in the world, in terms of both the production and sales of instant noodles. In 2011, the country produced a total of 48.4 billion packets of instant noodles, with sales amounting to 55.8 billion yuan (US$8.86 billion).

Statistics from askci.com, a professional market research institute in China, show that the country produced a total of 8.28 million tons of instant noodles in 2011, a 22.82 percent increase compared to the 2010 numbers.