Instant ramen servings consumed worldwide

A household buying more instant ramen for itself and more expensive chews for its dog is a household with a clear priority list, and the priority is not the household. 2020 made this imbalance explicit. The dogs were thrilled.

Both jumped in 2020 for the same general reason. Global instant ramen production rose about 9% on pandemic stockpiling as households stocked the cheapest shelf-stable food they could find, while US dog treat sales surged as the pandemic pet boom and guilty remote workers splurged on premium chews. Two very different strategies for feeding the same locked-down home.

So the correlation is the small, slightly embarrassing truth of lockdown spending. The humans ate down; the dogs ate up. Someone got spoiled.