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High-end mooncakes see low sales during China's Mid-Autumn festival
别样中秋 高端奢华月饼销量下降
Mooncakes are small sweet treats commonly consumed during China's Mid-Autumn festival. However, the festival falls this Thursday and sales of high-end mooncakes have been struggling in China.
As Mid Autumn Festival approaches, hundreds of exquisite mooncake packs are out on display at a large supermarket in North China’s Taiyuan city. But this year, business is much slower than usual.
Dong Bin, supermarket manager in Taiyuan, said, "Last year, before Mid Autumn Festival, we sold 200,000 Yuan worth of mooncakes every day. This year, we’ve sold barely half that amount."
The price of mooncake packs can range from less than a hundred Yuan to over one thousand Yuan, or even higher. Expensive mooncakes come in extremely expensive and showy packaging, sometimes with tea, alcohol or even jewelery. They used to be very popular as gifts or even bribes at this time of year. But the trend seems to have been bucked this year.
Dong said, "This year people are tending to buy mooncake packs priced at around 100 Yuan or less. High-end products have seen a sharp sales drop. Packs which costs over 1,000 Yuan are barely selling."
A similar trend is also seen in Tianjin, another city in North China.
Guan Shuhua, food manger in Tianjin, said, "We’ve seen a sharp sales drop in high-end mooncakes, especially wholesale."
High-end mooncake retailers are suffering this year, as a result of the government’s new anti-corruption measures. Just weeks before the start of Mid-Autumn Festival, the central government has banned officials from using public funds to buy mooncakes.
