No appetite for high-end mooncakes in waning economy
Staff Reporter 2012-09-15 10:38 (GMT+8)
Mooncakes at a bakery in Beijing. (File photo)
High-end mooncakes have lost their appeal this year due to a prevailing gloomy economic atmosphere. Hotels and bakeries in China have already offered 50% discounts and reduced the production of more expensive mooncakes, a traditional Chinese filled pastry given as gifts during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival to friends, relative and business partners.
Buyers' appetites for mooncakes priced over 400 yuan (US$63) are significantly reduced this year. An upmarket hotel in Guangzhou said it has sold over 3,000 boxes of mid-prized mooncakes but only a couple of hundred of its most expensive ones.
A salesperson at a five-star hotel was quick to offer a 50% discount to a buyer who expressed interest in buying 80 boxes, where a 10% would have been the maximum in the past, according to the local Guangzhou Daily. Another owner of a five-star hotel said greater discounts for mooncakes have been offered earlier than in past years.
The number of clients who were willing to spend money on luxury mooncakes has reportedly declined by 40%-50%. Some of the regular customers of high-end mooncakes have opted for the 200-yuan (US$31) mooncakes this year and only placed half of their previous orders, said one staff member of a high-end hotel, according to the newspaper.
A representative for a hotel in Zhujiang New Town said their 888-yuan (US$140) mooncakes would have sold out by now if the economic climate had been the same as last year, but their sales this year have been poor and the hotel has accordingly produced less expensive mooncakes.
A saleswoman working at a Japanese company said high-end mooncakes have become an unpopular gift among its clients, some of whom have even refused to accept them and forced them to take the pastries back, noted Guangzhou Daily.
The owner of one hotel said the current market has prompted businesses to cut their orders for the cakes. Competition between increasing numbers of hotels has also forced price cuts.
Buyers have also become more wary as most labels on high-end mooncakes did not reveal the precise content of precious ingredients like abalone and bird's nest, said Yu Yongwen, executive chairman of the World Association of Chinese Cuisine.
A restaurant owner said its most popular mooncakes were those priced around 100 yuan (US$16), which boosted their sales by 10%. The number of buyers for high-end mooncakes showed negative growth and the most expensive cakes only accounted to less than 10% of its sales, according to Guangzhou Daily.
