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as the mid-autumn festival approaches, mooncakes, the undisputed "c position" seasonal delicacy, are entering a peak sales season. the reporter visited the market and found that the sales of old-fashioned mooncakes with traditional flavors are good. at the same time, low-oil, low-sugar, sugar-free mooncakes and mooncakes with distinct regional characteristics are popular in the market.

discount promotion in advance

according to the reporter, some popular gift boxes of mooncakes in previous years have been discounted early this year. a certain brand of lava milk yellow gift box, which used to require waiting in line to buy, has fallen below 200 yuan on an e-commerce platform. according to media reports, many mooncake oem factories also reported that some mooncakes this year are "not selling well", and some factories even shipped only half of last year's volume this year. as the number of orders decreases, the work intensity of the factories has gradually decreased. some oem factories have even changed from "working until the early morning to ship" in previous years to "working three days and resting one day" this year.

the industry has long anticipated the "cooling" of the market. the "2024 mid-autumn mooncake industry trend report" released by the china bakery and confectionery industry association in august shows that this year's mid-autumn mooncake production is expected to be 300,000 tons, with sales of around 20 billion yuan, which is expected to be about 2 billion yuan less than in 2023. during this year's mid-autumn festival, the market will show the normal characteristics of a short sales period, market concentration, and large short-term volume.

a salesperson at a supermarket told reporters that all gift boxes of mooncakes currently on sale are discounted, with some gift boxes offering buy one get one free. "this year's discounts start earlier than in previous years, and the discount will last until the mid-autumn festival. the current price is the lowest." the salesperson also told reporters that gift box mooncakes with high cost performance and good reputation, such as lava milk yellow, have been selling well, and there are only a few boxes left of many products. freshly made mooncakes such as fresh meat mooncakes, crayfish mooncakes and shrimp mooncakes are also popular among consumers.

young consumers have new choices

according to the reporter's observation, although mooncakes are a must-have during the mid-autumn festival, many young consumers have begun to choose to buy other pastries instead of mooncakes. xiaoxin, a post-00s consumer, bought egg yolk pastries as mid-autumn festival gifts for her family and friends. in her opinion, on the one hand, egg yolk pastries are more in line with her family's taste, and on the other hand, egg yolk pastries are round in shape like mooncakes, which also symbolizes reunion.

changes in consumer behavior also reflect the current prosperity of the chinese pastry industry. in recent years, various chinese pastries such as dingsheng cake, peach cake, green bean cake, and green rice cake have regained the favor of consumers, and national trend pastry shops have gradually occupied the streets and alleys and shopping malls and supermarkets. many traditional pastries in childhood memories are returning to the public eye with the revival of traditional culture and the change of consumer preferences.

according to imedia consulting's "2023 global chinese pastry industry consumer insight research report", the scale of china's chinese pastry market will reach 43.66 billion yuan in 2023. it is expected that by 2028, the global chinese pastry market scale is expected to increase to 105.05 billion yuan.

in addition, under the influence of the national trend of pastries, the deep integration of mooncakes and other pastries has become a trend, and mooncakes have become cake-like and dessert-like, which is a new trend that is more in line with the eating habits of young people. for example, this year's jin-style egg mooncakes with soft and cake-like crust continue to be popular, and many businesses have launched egg mooncakes with different flavors.

healthy and special products are popular

with the popularization of the concept of healthy consumption, traditional mooncakes with high oil content and high sugar content are gradually "abandoned" by consumers due to their high calories and sweetness. nutritious and healthy low-gi, low-sugar, sugar-substitute, sugar-free mooncakes and multi-grain mooncakes are becoming more and more popular. the "mooncake market consumption trend report" released by jd.com in august showed that 56% of respondents were concerned about the health of mooncake ingredients. in 2023, sales of sugar-free and low-sugar mooncakes increased by more than 20%, and more and more mooncake brands began to increase the research and development of this category. for example, maxim's mooncakes launched sugar-substitute mooncakes that use sugar alcohol instead of sugar; bestore's low-sugar cantonese mooncakes have a sugar content of only one-tenth of traditional cantonese mooncakes. these mooncakes meet consumers' needs for health while retaining the taste and flavor of pastries.

as a traditional chinese pastry that has been passed down for thousands of years and spans thousands of miles, mooncakes have distinct regional characteristics. the differences in raw materials and production processes in various regions have led to a flourishing mooncake market. among them, cantonese-style, su-style, and beijing-style mooncakes are popular throughout the country and occupy a major market share. in recent years, mooncake products with local characteristics and differentiation have gradually become the focus of companies in expanding the market. taobao's search for "national specialty mooncakes" is quite popular. the market share of specialty mooncake products such as inner mongolia milk skin mooncakes, fujian-style large mooncakes, and shanxi hollow mooncakes has increased year by year.

the "2024 mooncake product online market consumption trend analysis" released by jd.com shows that snowy mooncakes continue to concentrate in the leading provinces, while yunnan-style mooncakes are expanding outside the production areas. among the snowy mooncake categories, snowy durian mooncakes stand out this year and have become a hot-selling product in e-commerce and supermarkets.

a new retail supermarket has put 6 types of snowy durian mooncakes on the shelves this year. ms. zhang, a citizen who was shopping, said: "i have always liked eating durian. i have bought this type of snowy durian mooncake online. it tastes very good and i don't feel sick at all. it's just like eating dessert. when i buy mooncakes, i buy the flavors i like."

□ li guyun, trainee reporter of this newspaper