In recent years, the mooncake market has been generally standardized and orderly, but some companies still speculate on the price of mooncakes in various ways, and "sky-high" mooncakes appear from time to time. In order to promote frugality and oppose waste, and promote holiday f

text and pictures/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Hang Ying Li Zhiwen Intern Xu Jiayan

It is more than a month since Mid-Autumn Festival Festival, but various mooncakes have quietly filled the shelves in prominent locations in major supermarkets. As a representative food of Mid-Autumn Festival , mooncakes are often regarded as symbols of reunion. In recent years, the mooncake market has been generally standardized and orderly, but some companies still speculate on the price of mooncakes in various ways, and "sky-high" mooncakes appear from time to time.

In order to promote frugality, oppose waste, and promote holiday foods such as mooncakes to return to the attributes of mass consumer goods and the origin of traditional culture, in June this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments issued the "On Curbing "Sky-high" Moon Cakes and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Industry The Announcement (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement") puts forward major regulatory requirements from seven aspects in response to prominent issues such as excessive packaging of "sky-high-priced" mooncakes, aiming to promote the healthy development of the mooncake industry.

has been two months since the announcement was released. With the approaching Mid-Autumn Festival, the peak of mooncake consumption is coming. Recently, a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News visited several supermarkets in Guangzhou to investigate the current sales of mooncakes on offline and online e-commerce platforms.

Supervision: Take 7-pronged approach to curb "sky-high" mooncakes

The Announcement implements key supervision on high-priced boxed mooncakes and excessive packaging, and encourages operators to produce and sell boxed mooncakes with high quality and low price. Key supervision will be implemented for boxed mooncakes with unit prices exceeding 500 yuan. Boxed mooncakes are required to strictly abide by the mandatory standards for food packaging, and precious materials such as precious metals and mahogany shall not be used. When selling boxed mooncakes, operators shall not sell other products in any form, nor shall they mix and sell mooncakes with other products in the form of gift boxes or other products.

According to the "Announcement", hotels, restaurants and other operators should comply with the same policy and regulations for processing, production and sales of boxed mooncakes. Operators on e-commerce platforms must also comply with relevant regulations as offline operators for boxed mooncake sales activities. If operators issue mooncake coupons , mooncake card and other pick-up card coupons, they should strictly abide by the "Management Measures for Single-Purpose Commercial Prepaid Cards (Trial)".

Finally, the "Announcement" advocates industry self-discipline and requires industry organizations to actively promote industry self-discipline, advocate not using rare ingredients such as shark fin and bird's nest, guide operators to price reasonably, and consciously maintain market order.

Visit: The price of mooncakes is mostly concentrated between 100 and 300 yuan, and it is hard to escape the "appearance anxiety"

htmlOn August 11, the reporter visited many supermarkets and large shopping malls in Guangzhou and found that the prices of mooncakes sold on the market are mainly concentrated between 100 and 300 yuan. In the range, no products with a price of more than 500 yuan have been found. But it is worth noting that many boxed mooncakes on sale have overpackage, and the higher the price, the more obvious this phenomenon is.

Likoufu Cake Shop located on Tangshi Road, Tianhe District specializes in Guangzhou Restaurant Mooncake , with prices ranging from more than 100 to more than 400. The reporter found in the store that the most expensive Linglong Zhenpin Liuxin mooncake is priced at 468 yuan. The product is exquisitely packaged and equipped with a metal handle.

Another Guangzhou Restaurant and China Aerospace Space Creation Culture and Creative jointly launched the "Tiangong Dream" mooncake gift box. The product is priced at 338 yuan. Its outer packaging uses cardboard shells and transparent plastic film to hold it. The inner packaging of the mooncake is made of two "rockets" made of metal materials.

in Metro Supermarket in Huangpu Avenue, Tianhe District, there are a wide range of mooncakes sold, including major well-known brands, including bulk mooncakes that cost 8 yuan per box and fine mooncakes that cost more than 400 yuan per box.

The salesperson at the mooncake counter of a supermarket in Liwan District told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the current overall price range of Guangzhou mooncake gift boxes is between 180 and 390 yuan, with an average price of about 250 yuan; the unit price is above 500 yuan, accounting for a very small proportion, which is about ~ 1%-2%, and the sales volume is not much. According to the reporter, no cases of using precious ingredients for mooncake making have been found.

reporter randomly interviewed many consumers in supermarkets. Regarding the price of mooncakes, nearly 80% of consumers said that the price of mooncakes "sky-high" changes in the price of mooncakes will not affect their purchasing behavior and are not sensitive to the price of mooncakes.Most consumers believe that the Mid-Autumn Festival is an annual festival, and eating mooncakes is a traditional project on this day. They will not not buy mooncakes due to price changes. The quality of mooncakes and the reputation of manufacturers are widely concerned by consumers. Local time-honored brands such as Guangzhou Restaurant and Taotaoju are the first choice for many Guangzhou citizens, especially "old Guangzhou".

For most consumers, the packaging of mooncakes is not the core factor affecting purchase. Regarding "hardcover" mooncakes, most consumers said that in addition to giving gifts, they pay more attention to the texture and quality of the mooncakes they eat at home. "Just enjoy the beautiful mooncakes with good packaging, and the purchase is not cost-effective." A citizen who is buying bulk mooncakes told Yangcheng Evening News reporter.

For online platform, the reporter observed that the price of mooncakes is roughly the same as offline. In addition to innovating in the packaging of mooncake gift boxes, co-branding with brands such as Disney, , Forbidden City, and , and combining Mid-Autumn Festival representative elements for packaging design, the shape of the mooncake itself also "has its own strengths". There are macaron-shaped ice-skin mooncakes , including pumpkin, peach and other fruits, vegetable shapes, etc.

Expert: Exquisite packaging is a consumer demand, but the market should not put the cart before the cart

"The selling price of mooncakes is related to its sales characteristics. The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the price of mooncakes is basically at the time rhythm of highs at the beginning and lows at the end. This year's selling price of mooncakes is compared with previous years. Compared to the normal state, there is no outrageously high state in previous years. "Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iMedia Consulting, told Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the current mooncake market price situation is relatively stable.

For the increasingly exquisite mooncake shape and gift box packaging, Zhang Yi believes that this is determined by consumer needs. While ensuring the quality of of the product, manufacturers should keep a distance and attract consumers' attention. Innovation in packaging and styling is very important. Mooncakes are often used as emotional expressions for gifts, which also determines their requirements in packaging design.

"2022 China Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncake Gift Box Consumer Demand Research Report" released by iResearch Consulting shows that from 2016 to 2021, the market size of China's mooncake gift box showed an upward trend, from 11.65 billion yuan to 16.88 billion yuan, and China's mooncake in 2022 The gift box market size reached 18.87 billion yuan, an increase of 11.8% year-on-year. Survey data shows that 58.2% of consumers buy mooncake gift box products for the purpose of giving gifts, and the main gifts given by consumers are relatives, friends, company colleagues, etc. Against the background of the prevalence of "appearance economy", exquisite mooncake packaging and good-quality mooncakes are easier to leverage consumers' shopping desires.

At the same time, Zhang Yi also mentioned that while pursuing exquisite mooncake packaging, mooncake manufacturers should not use packaging as a condition and increase the price of mooncakes too much, and they should not ignore product quality because of exquisite packaging. "Whether mooncakes meet food standards and whether the product quality is up to standard is a common topic. In the past, there were problems such as mooncake bacteria exceeding the standard and the manufacturer's hygiene conditions every year, and these situations need to be improved." Zhang Yi said that mooncakes themselves are foods If the gift box is mixed with other gifts such as pens, toys, etc., it will lose the meaning of the mooncake itself. (For more news, please follow Yangchengpai pai.ycwb.com)

Source | Yangcheng Evening News·Yangchengpai

Editor | Li Xu