Moon Cakes Are Big Business in China

Mooncake, is the Chinese version of the Christmas fruitcake. It is a dense, filled pastry that is sliced and eaten every Mid-Autumn Festival. This festival honors longevity and family unity on the day the moon is brightest. The 700 year old tradition of gifting and eating mooncakes has firmly lodged in China’s culture. It was the tool of revolutionaries-according to an old anecdote.

The mooncake is a delicious pastry that is abundant during this festival. Everyone loves this food that has different tastes in it.

Weeks before the festival that falls on September 14, supermarkets, restaurants, pastry shops in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Japan are competing over consumers with different attack plans. Some are making Cantonese-styled mooncakes with lotus paste while other rely on modern twists like imported cheese and cherries, spicy beef, etc.

Tools used in networking

In 2006, estimated revenue was $1.42 billion for bakeries, hotels and manufacturers as they see 250,000 tons of mooncakes sold in China alone. In Beijing, July-September sales generated $20 million in revenue.

These cakes are not only irresistible but sending cakes with luxurious ingredients is a simple way to ask favor. Chinese consumers not just buy a box of mooncake to share with families; they send them to clients, partners, bureaucrats and even school principals. Anybody they know they can benefit from.

As the festival approaches, the reception areas of businesses become inundated with colorful packages of moon cakes. In fact, rejecting moon cakes is on par with walking into a Japanese household with muddy sneakers, as microchip maker Intel Corp. learned when it unwittingly offended the company's Chinese suppliers by snubbing their moon cakes based on company policy toward gifts.