Japan's Discontinued Giant Panda Snack Growing Popular Overseas

New York, May 11 (Jiji Press)--A Meiji Co. biscuit snack that was discontinued in Japan more than 40 years ago has become a hit overseas.

The Hello Panda snack is currently sold at stores in the United States and other countries outside Japan, with sales of the giant panda-embossed cream-filled biscuits tripling in 2024 from those of 2018. Hoping to turn the product into a major pillar of its overseas snacks business, the Japanese food company plans to invest 10 billion yen to boost production through means such as establishing a new production line at a factory in Pennsylvania.

In 1987, Meiji released the "Konnichiwa Panda" snack in Japan, hoping to ride on the coattails of the second giant panda boom in the country, ignited by the birth of giant panda Tong Tong at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.

Succumbing to fierce snack competition in Japan, the product was discontinued in 1989.

Meiji started selling Hello Panda, the overseas version of Konnichiwa Panda, in Singapore in 1991, gradually expanding sales to other countries. Currently, the product is sold in over 30 countries, with the United States boasting the largest sales.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]