The Mid-Autumn Festival is a Chinese festival where people celebrate by eating mooncakes. The holiday is usually China’s peak season for gift-giving. This year, the market for mooncakes in mainland China is particularly sluggish. According to the China Bakery and Confectionery Industry Association, mooncake sales are projected to decline by 2 billion yuan (US$ 280 million) compared to last year. Some market analysts have labeled this as the “coldest Mid-Autumn Festival in history.”
An article on Yahoo Finance listed three reasons for this to happen:
- With the mainland economy struggling, corporate gift-giving this year has completely dried out, especially in the four major “gift-giving industries”: real estate, construction, building materials, and finance. These sectors have realized that “relying on mooncake gifts isn’t bringing in business.”
- Family gift-giving has also decreased significantly due to reduced consumer spending power. In an environment of consumption downgrade, consumers are opting for lower-priced, homemade mooncakes with simpler packaging.
- Also young people are increasingly seeking healthier diets, and traditional mooncakes, which are high in oil and sugar, are viewed as unhealthy.
Source: Yahoo Finance, September 16, 2024
https://hk.finance.yahoo.com/news/史上最冷中秋？月餅滯銷-市場盤點三大終極原因-042821633.html