BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, this year's mooncake market is still receiving attention. In June, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued relevant regulations to make clear requirements for mooncake packaging to curb the phenomenon of "sky-high mooncakes". Despite the success, some of the phenomenon of "scraping the edge" still exists. Some consumers say they value the ritual of the festival more than luxury packaging, so some low-quality plain mooncakes have become popular.
The picture shows the simple mooncake Wei Xianghui in a Beijing supermarket
A box of mooncakes sells for 1188 yuan
Inspired by the packaging design of the "Glass Palace" at the entrance of the Louvre, a French landmark, and with a terminal price of 1188 yuan, häagen-Dazs's operation seems to immediately make the mooncake, a traditional food of the Mid-Autumn Festival, become "tall".
In April this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced a number of typical cases of commodity over-packaging law enforcement, including the above-mentioned Haagen-Dazs "Louvre Moon" ice cream mooncake. The notice shows that the "Lou Fu YingYue" series of ice cream sold by the Beijing branch of General Mill Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. on September 17, 2021 was unqualified for packaging void rate after inspection, which was an overpackaged commodity.
According to survey data, due to different fillings, packaging materials, etc., although there are certain differences in the production cost of boxed mooncakes, they will not be very high overall, and the average production cost is about 70 yuan / box. Affordable mooncakes are basically adjusted spontaneously in accordance with the laws of the market, and many mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan have excessive packaging, excessive speculation, and unworthy of the name.
"Compared to other foods, mooncakes have significant seasonality and gift attributes, and in order to seize the opportunity to obtain high profits, merchants will try their best." A veteran of the food industry explained to China News Network the reasons for the excessive packaging of mooncakes.
The picture shows the mooncake ice cream jointly signed by Häagen-Dazs and the Louvre Museum this year. Image source: Häagen-Dazs brand WeChat public account
Merchants play "word games"
China News Network saw in the official flagship store of Häagen-Dazs on an e-commerce platform that the brand continued to launch the Mid-Autumn Festival set gift box jointly with the Louvre Museum this year, of which two mooncake ice cream gift boxes were priced at 288 yuan and 358 yuan respectively.
This year, Häagen-Dazs and the Louvre Museum jointly launched a total of 7 Mid-Autumn Festival set gift boxes, in addition to the above two, the other 5 models are priced at more than 500 yuan, the most expensive one is the Louvre Mid-Autumn Festival set gift box, the price of 999 yuan.
When China News Network asked the store customer service whether the products it sold were mooncakes, the other party replied that this was a paper mooncake coupon issued after placing an order, and it was necessary to make an appointment to pick it up. On June 9, Häagen-Dazs's official Weibo announcement also called it a "mooncake ice cream gift box", and then changed its name to "Golden Autumn Gift Box Set".
Recently, the Belgian chocolate brand Godiva has also fallen into the same controversy. It launched a high-priced Mid-Autumn Festival gift box priced at up to 1699 yuan on its official website and offline stores, and the products in it are very similar in appearance to mooncakes, but the packaging only writes "chocolate pastry". Therefore, netizens questioned whether they were playing a "word game". As of press time, China News Network has not been unable to find the above products in the Mid-Autumn Festival series sales area on the official website of Godifan, and can only be found in the gift voucher exchange area.
The 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival gilded and elegant gift box sold on the official website of Godifan costs 469 yuan in 8 pieces, and the single price is nearly 60 yuan. Image source: Godiva official website
Four departments shot, all localities strictly investigated the "sky-high price moon cake"
The reason why merchants have spent so much effort may have something to do with the release of this year's "strictest mooncake restriction order".
In June, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments issued the "Announcement on Curbing the "Sky-high Price" Mooncakes and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement"), which put forward new requirements from the sales price and packaging of the mooncakes and drew a regulatory "red line". For example, the implementation of key supervision of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan; It is required that operators producing and selling boxed mooncakes should strictly comply with the mandatory standards for food packaging, and must not use precious metals, rosewood and other precious materials.
On August 15 this year, the "Restriction of Excessive Packaging Requirements for Commodities - Food and Cosmetics" National Standard No. 1 Amendment Order was officially implemented. The standard stipulates that the number of packaging layers of mooncakes and rice dumplings shall not exceed 3 layers at most; Compression of packaging voids; Reduce the cost of packaging, sell mooncakes and rice dumplings with a sales price of more than 100 yuan, and reduce the proportion of packaging costs in the sales price from 20% to 15%; Packaging must not be made of precious metals and mahogany materials; It is forbidden to mix mooncakes with other products.
Recently, the market supervision departments in many places across the country have carried out special rectification of chaos such as excessive packaging and "sky-high mooncakes", and raided mooncake manufacturers, high-end hotels, supermarkets, and mooncake operators in professional markets.
In accordance with the aforementioned "Announcement", all violations of laws and regulations are to be strictly investigated and handled, and information on relevant violations of laws and regulations is to be included in the national credit information sharing platform in accordance with laws and regulations and is to be publicized on the "Credit China" website and the national enterprise credit information publicity system.
The picture shows the citizens buying mooncake gift boxes in supermarkets before the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. Photo by Tang Shi
Plain mooncakes are popular with consumers
At present, under strict orders, the effect of "slimming" and close price of mooncake packaging is obvious, and consumers' purchasing habits are also quietly changing.
Last year, the Mid-Autumn Festival consumption data of a fresh e-commerce platform showed that "light" mooncakes were very popular, with small boxes, single packages and simple mooncakes accounting for 90% of the overall sales of the platform. Recently, China News Network visited a number of supermarkets in Beijing and found that this trend is expected to continue this year.
In a shopping mall in Beijing's Daxing District, some of the mooncakes in the bulk pastry area are packaged in simple plastic boxes, and a box of mooncakes with 8 lotus flavors costs only 10.82 yuan. In addition, several pieces of mooncakes with flavors are combined, and the price of each box does not exceed 30 yuan. The shopping guide told China News Network that these simple mooncakes are very popular with everyone.
A citizen who came to shop said, "Eating mooncakes is mainly a sense of ritual for a festival, and if you eat them, you don't pay too much attention to packaging." These simple packaging mooncakes are affordable and convenient, and it is very appropriate to buy a meaning. (End)