Mooncake popularity soaring
( 2001-09-29 09:32 ) (1 )

A whopping 95 per cent of Chinese people are still over the moon about mooncakes and believe a Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival without the traditional treat wouldn't be right, a recent survey claimed.

Two-thirds of those polled said they were upset by reports of inferior mooncakes being sold this year, but 86 per cent planned to buy mooncakes during the festival anyway.

The survey featured 1,860 respondents in major Chinese cities and was conducted by the Beijing-based Social Survey Institution of China.

Earlier this month, a prominent mooncake factory in Nanjing was reported to have minced and frozen last year's leftover mooncake fillings and reuse them in this year's product.

The report raised widespread concern and distrust over the quality of mooncakes and led to predictions that mooncake sales would slump this year.

Those forecasts proved incorrect, as brand-name mooncakes from centuries-old producers in Beijing continued to report sky-high sales.

Survey results indicated that brand loyalty sits atop the list of factors consumers consider when buying their mooncakes. Taste, price, the production date and packaging were others mentioned.

To compete, some Shanghai mooncake producers have created new fillings for mooncakes, including seafood, "edible bird's nest," pearl powder, coffee and ice cream.

Some seafood mooncakes are priced at about 1,200 yuan (US$145) per box, equal to the average monthly wage of a city worker.

"It's too expensive. Every year I buy a box for about 60 yuan (US$7) if my child wants to eat some," said a taxi driver who asked to remain anonymous.

But high-priced cakes found their market, too, and have sold out, mooncake experts say.

But the traditional types remain popular, too. Shanghai Xinghualou (Group) Co, which produces about half the city's mooncakes, sold 500 boxes of classic mooncakes with red bean paste in recent weeks.

In southern China, mooncake sellers are also seeing stars on the heels of good media publicity.

A Guangdong television station reported recently that mooncake quality in Guangzhou is better than ever and prices are about the same as last year.