Competition for 'Summer Ramen'

Local food companies are engaged in a "summer ramen" competition with their own novel brand-new products.

These are ramen brands with flavors of bean-soup noodles, one of Korea's traditional summertime dishes.

Increasing the quantity of soup base by twice, these ramen products have rich flavors.

The variety of the spicy "Bibimeyon" instant noodle items which are more popular in the summer has also increased.

As many as 1.1 million units of an instant cold noodle "Naengmyeon" were sold during the first month.

One billion won worth of a brand made with curry and unfried rice were sold during the first three weeks.

Back in 2015, flavors of Korea's Chinese-style dishes -- Jajangmyeon and Jjamppong -- were popular.

In this summer, the local food market is likely to heat up due to the expected fierce competition among spicy or savory ramen makers.