With Mid-Autumn Day coming tomorrow, saleswoman Wang Xiurong is
finding her business less buoyant than expected.
Her counter in Beijing's Sogo department store has an array of
simple, prettily packaged mooncakes costing 88 to 689 yuan
(US$11-87) per box.
"The best seller was a box of Cantonese flavored mooncakes
priced at 189 yuan (US$23.9)," Wang said, adding that the same
product with a 10-yuan (US$1.25) bottle of wine tucked into the box
sold for more than 250 yuan (US$31.6) last year.
Glamorous mooncake packs containing "special accessories" such
as wines or fine watches were very popular last year, but this
glitzy approach has sent mooncake prices through the roof.
At festival time last year, newspapers reported two extreme
cases - a box of mooncakes containing a gold Buddha figurine worth
180,000 yuan (US$22,500) and another box that included the key to a
new apartment worth 310,000 yuan (US$38,750).
"People buy them as gifts for friends or relatives, or even as
bribes for officials," Wang said. "The 'special mooncake
accessories' make the gifts 'heavier' and the recipients
happier."
The Compulsory State Standards for the Production of
Mooncakes, jointly released by the General Administration of
Quality Inspection, Supervision and Quarantine and the
Standardization Administration of China, took effect this June.
According to the standards, mooncake packaging must represent no
more than 25 percent of the total cost of the mooncake product, and
the average space between mooncakes in a box should not exceed 2.5
centimeters.
Some local mooncake standards ban accessories in mooncake boxes
to prevent extravagance and corruption.
Wang, the saleswoman, said enforcement of the standards has
pushed mooncake prices down this year, but some people still like
to buy mooncakes with accessories.
"Some shoppers keep asking if there is wine in the mooncake box
and leave disappointed when I tell them that the government
prohibits 'accessories' in boxes," Wang said.
History
In ancient China, the Mid-Autumn Festival marked the beginning
of the harvest season. Traditionally, celebrants will sit around
tables in their courtyards admiring the full moon and eating
mooncakes.
The festival dates back to the early Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)
and is regarded by the Chinese as second in importance only to the
Spring Festival, which heralds a new year in the Chinese lunar
calendar.
It has also always been an occasion for presenting gifts to
friends or relatives. The gifts can be as simple as handmade
mooncakes or, as described in classic Chinese literature, goose
feathers.
But in modern times, festival gifts have become more and more
costly and can be used as bribes.
Silk, gold wrapping, wines, fine watches - all these are
accessories that make traditional mooncakes stand out together with
their unique and impressive packaging.
The price for such luxuries is high. Ordinary people still mark
the occasion by presenting mooncakes to the elderly as tradition
demands.
"We applaud the government's efforts to lower the price of
mooncakes," a middle-aged woman told China Features at the Sogo
department store. "Ordinary people like us buy mooncakes just for
our families and friends. We don't need the complicated accessories
in the box."
Director Wang of Guanshengyuan, a well-known dim sum brand,
expected higher sales this year.
"We conformed strictly to the standards even before they came
out in June. People buying our brand want mooncakes but not
expensive packaging or accessories," he said.
Online luxury loopholes
However, expensive boxes of mooncakes complete with
"accessories" can still be found online, as some mooncake companies
turn to the Internet to play hide-and-seek with the government.
The Shanghai-based website Sinocake offers dozens of expensive
mooncake sets online, some of which contain luxurious wines or
watches.
A set of mooncakes produced by a Shanghai-based food company
containing 11 mooncakes and a 200-ml bottle of brandy sells for 288
yuan (US$36) on the website.
In another set produced by a Taiwan-based bakery with a price
tag of 798 yuan (US$100), the mooncakes come with gold wrapping, a
crystal tray and silver knives and forks.
"Those mooncakes are so popular that they have been out of stock
for a week," said a staff member at the website's ordering
service.
He claimed that all the expensive mooncakes were approved by
government departments in Shanghai, but was unable to name the
departments.
"Expensive 'accessory mooncakes' cannot be found at department
stores," he said, "but people can order them online. We dispatch
staff to deliver our products before buyers pay for them, which
makes things very convenient."
However, 76 Shanghai food companies, whose mooncake products
account for about 80 percent of the mooncake market, signed a pact
in July promising to obey the new mooncake standards, although some
of the companies sell mooncakes with luxurious accessories
online.
(China Daily October 5, 2006)