Mooncake sales up by 22% to 47%

Writer: Zhang Yu  |  Editor: Holly Wang  |  From: Shenzhen Daily  |  Updated: 2020-09-18

Mooncakes on sale at a Vanguard outlet are priced between 99 and 198 yuan. DT News

As this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with National Day on Oct. 1, businesses have been in action since August to ensure the availability of a large stock of mooncakes and kick the subsequent promotion into overdrive.

With the festival less than two weeks away, mooncakes take the center stage in the consumer market. At present, mooncake sales for many businesses have increased by 22 to 47 percent year on year, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Thursday.

Mooncake prices this year are generally the same as those of last year, and it is expected that sales will peak a week before the festival.

According to the Daily, lavishly decorated packages and pricey mooncakes have passed out of favor this year. Most packages focus on creativity and beauty, and the price of a box of mooncakes varies from 100 yuan (US$14.78) to 200 yuan.

Businesses have also shifted their focus to the taste and quality of the holiday specialty to meet consumer desire to pursue a healthy diet.

Overall, mooncakes with traditional fillings such as mixed nuts, salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste, and fashionable fillings like lava custard, have a steady following.

“At present, the sales of mooncakes have increased by about 22 percent compared with last year. Lava-custard-filled cakes and those with yolks and lotus seed paste are the most popular in the Shenzhen market,” a salesperson with supermarket Carrefour said.

Apart from the mooncakes sold by supermarkets, shopping malls and pastry shops, the hand-made versions launched by some time-honored food preparation businesses in Shenzhen have also built up a solid fan base.

To answer the country’s call to practice thrift and stop food waste, many large supermarkets also sell various small-sized and separate mooncakes for consumers to mix and match according to their needs.