Zhongxin Jingwei, September 13 -- Mooncakes symbolize great reunion, and people use them as festive food to worship the moon and give gifts to relatives and friends. Mooncakes became a special food of the Mid-Autumn Festival and began at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Ming Dynasty gradually circulated among the people, and the Ming people had a large number of records about mooncakes, such as Shen Bang's "Miscellaneous Notes of Wanji": "Shishu furniture is left behind by moon-made flour cakes, different sizes, called mooncakes." ”
In modern times, the production of mooncakes has become more and more delicate, and the varieties have become more and more diverse. Now the mooncakes on the market can be divided into several categories, according to the production area can be divided into Beijing-style, Cantonese-style, Soviet-style, Taiwanese-style, Yunnian-style, Hong Kong-style and Chao-style mooncakes; According to different tastes, it can be divided into sweet, salty, salty and spicy mooncakes; According to different fillings, it can be divided into five kernels, bean paste, rock sugar, sesame mooncakes, etc.; According to the crust of the pie, it can be divided into three types: pulp mooncake, mixed sugar skin mooncake and puff pastry mooncake.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival is on September 29, basically the same period as the National Day, and the festive atmosphere is strong. The Mid-Autumn Festival market will have the normalization characteristics of short sales period, market concentration and large short-term volume; Online sales warmed up earlier, platform enterprises have slightly changed their service methods, and there are more marketing methods, and the increase in sales should be larger than that of offline. It is expected that the overall production and sales will increase slightly this year, with an increase of about 5%.
According to Tianyan inspection data, there are more than 21,000 mooncake-related enterprises, of which more than 350 were newly registered from January to August 2023; from the perspective of geographical distribution, Guangdong, Henan and Guangxi ranked first in the number of related enterprises, with more than 2,500, more than 1,880 and more than 1,870 respectively.
Mooncake industry chain: Mid-Autumn Festival superimposed on National Day attracts all "masters" to gather in the mooncake market
The mooncake industry is in the food manufacturing industry, and its industrial chain mainly includes three links: upstream raw materials, midstream mooncake production and packaging and downstream sales channels.
In the upstream link, it mainly includes mooncake crust raw material enterprises and mooncake filling raw material enterprises. The raw materials of mooncake filling mainly include salted egg yolk, ham, dried fruit, bean paste, lotus paste, etc.; The raw materials of mooncake crust mainly include flour, sugar, oil, eggs and yeast.
In addition to the basic filling and crust, packaging is another important link in the upstream of the mooncake industry. According to relevant statistics, the average annual cost of mooncake packaging in China exceeds 2.5 billion yuan. According to the data released by listed companies with packaging as their main business, the gross profit margin of the mooncake packaging industry is as high as 27.5%.
The midstream segment mainly produces mooncakes by purchasing raw materials and distributing them to downstream retailers after packaging.
The downstream sales channel link mainly faces the end consumer, and the current sales channels mainly include supermarkets, wholesale markets, e-commerce platforms, etc. With the development of e-commerce and the rapid penetration of the Internet, e-commerce platforms play an important role in the sales of mooncakes.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day overlap, which is known as the big year of the mooncake market. The broad market has attracted more and more enterprises to join the track. In addition to traditional pastry, catering, tea and coffee brands, Luxi River and Chef Bao on the fresh roasting track have also "stepped out of the circle" in mooncake sales and have become the "dark horses" of the industry.
Mooncake patents: a variety of unique flavors There is always one for you
In recent years, mooncakes are not only a festive delicacy, but also a topic of "strange" flavors that appear every year, as can be found from patent data.
Tianyancha patent data shows that there have been more than 10,000 patent applications related to mooncakes; From the perspective of specific types, there are more than 8860 appearance patents, more than 1480 utility models and more than 1590 invention patents, respectively.
From the specific point of view of appearance patents, "packaging box" is the absolute workhorse. Except for a few patents related to the shape of mooncakes, almost all of them are patent applications related to packaging boxes.
From the specific patent applications of utility models, most of them are related to the equipment for the production of mooncakes, such as: "a mooncake forming machine that can be rapidly molded", "a baking oven that can heat both sides of mooncakes at the same time" and other types.
Invention patents, mostly related to the filling of mooncakes. For many mooncakes, whether from the skin to the filling, fruit is the main force, whether it is traditional peaches, apples to the durian that everyone loves, they have their figure in mooncakes, after all, mooncakes focus on a reunion "sweet".
Of course, every year is indispensable is "strange" mooncakes, from spicy and fresh to sweet but not greasy, from light to greasy, from "low-end" to "high-end", there is always a suitable one for you.
Mooncake Marketing Trends: "Out of the Loop" Mooncakes are serious
In recent years, the state has continued to increase publicity, guidance, supervision and inspection, and taken multiple measures to strengthen food safety supervision and protect consumers' "safety on the tip of their tongues". At the same time, continue to promote the formulation and implementation of various safety regulations and standards for food safety, under the continuous improvement of consumers' pursuit of product quality safety and product quality, major mooncake manufacturers are taking ensuring product quality and safety as the primary task, the management system is constantly improving, and the production enterprises have carried out the whole process management of products, strictly controlling quality and safety to ensure product safety and quality.
In September 2023, the "Requirements for Limiting Excessive Packaging of Commodities Food and Cosmetics" (GB23350-2021) was officially implemented, which stipulates that the number of packaging layers of tea and related products shall not exceed four layers. On August 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the "Public Solicitation of Opinions on the Amendment to Mandatory National Standard No. 2 (Draft for Comments)" on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which mentioned that the number of packaging layers of grain and its processed products, tea, mooncakes and rice dumplings should not exceed three layers, and the number of packaging layers of tea was further reduced. Many enterprises actively respond to the policy call, integrate the concept of green simplicity and circular sustainability into the design of packaging, increase the versatility and interest of products, and have distinctive personality, novel style, full of social responsibility and sense of the times.
In the context of healthy eating, the production process and material selection of mooncakes pay more attention to health and nutrition, such as the use of healthy raw materials such as low sugar, low fat and low calorie, and the addition of healthy ingredients, such as dietary fiber, nuts, etc. Many enterprises continue to innovate the mooncake making process, and upgrade and innovate in the raw materials and processing technology of mooncake making. In the face of the new trend of healthy consumption and quality consumption, merchants accurately capture consumer needs. For example, some brands launch low-sugar mooncakes, using sugar alcohols instead of granulated sugar, or using carbonized sugar as raw materials; There are also brands that apply fruit preservation technology to mooncake fillings to bring a new fresh taste.
Tianyancha Research Institute believes that mooncakes as an important holiday consumption "necessity", whether in simple, environmentally friendly packaging, or healthy fillings, mooncakes have become an important epitome of bakery product innovation, under the influence of science and technology, environmental protection, health and other concepts, will attract more young people to consume. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)