Instant noodle specialist Nissin Foods is to raise the price of some of its hugely popular products in Hong Kong to cover the soaring costs of raw materials and logistics.

The company reported a slight increase in earnings for 2021.

The Hong Kong branch of the Japanese food maker will increase the ex-factory price of instant noodle products under the Demae Iccho and Cup Noodles brands, as well as its UFO noodles in a bowl by mid-to-high single-digit percentages from April 1, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Currently a seafood-flavoured Cup Noodle is priced at HK$8.90 (US$1.14), while a pack of Demae Iccho sesame oil-flavoured instant noodles can be purchased for HK$4.80 at the ParknShop supermarket chain.

Nissin said it last adjusted the price of its Demae Iccho products in Hong Kong 14 years ago, and its Cup Noodles products three years ago.

“In the face of increasing cost pressures arising from soaring raw materials and logistics costs, the group has implemented measures to optimise our operational and production efficiency so as to offset the rising costs,” Nissin said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It has reached the point where the group found it necessary to adjust its product prices in order to more effectively alleviate the cost pressure.”

The Hong Kong-listed company reported net profits of HK$303.8 million for last year, a slight increase from HK$301.9 million in 2020. This was helped by growth in sales of cup noodles in mainland China, and an increase in revenue from the non-instant noodle business in Hong Kong in “the absence of the sudden surge in demand especially in the bag-type instant noodles under the pandemic in early 2020,” it said.

Nissin’s operation in Hong Kong will focus on increasing sales within the non-instant noodle side of the business, particularly strengthening “the frozen food, distribution business, confectionery business, vegetable business and beverage business” to increase profit margins, CEO Kiyotaka Ando said in an annual results filing on Tuesday.

The latest round of the government’s digital consumption voucher scheme in April is expected to help stimulate local consumption in the near term, especially for inexpensive items such as groceries, the company added.

“Looking forward, unless and until the pandemic is contained and daily life resumes as normal, the raw material price fluctuation will continue to impact the manufacturing businesses for the time being,” Ando said in the filing.