Nearly a million dong for a box of handmade mooncakes shaped like peacocks and dragons

Ms. Phuong Linh, owner of a bakery in Ho Chi Minh City, said that despite economic difficulties, this year she still made thousands of moon cakes in diverse styles, from traditional to modern. This year, she added a new line of cakes shaped like dragons and peacocks.

Each costs 100,000 VND with sweet filling and 120,000 VND with mixed filling. Box of 9 ranges from 900,000 VND to nearly 1.1 million VND. Each cake weighs 150 grams and is colored with vegetables.

Not only in Ho Chi Minh City, in Da Lat, Ms. Vu Tran Nha Uyen, owner of a handmade moon cake shop, this year also introduced for the first time the "Ky Lan dao phuc" cake collection. Each cake bears the shape of mascots symbolizing luck and prosperity.

In addition to the dragon-shaped cake - the symbol of the year, she also makes unicorn, carp, and rose-shaped cakes. Weighing 70 grams each, a box of 9 cakes costs from 450,000 VND to 650,000 VND, depending on the design and packaging.

According to Ms. Uyen, it takes her about half a day to a day to decorate the box, because all the details such as miyuki knots, jade pendants and fan paintings are handmade. After that, it takes her about 3-4 hours to make the cake, not to mention the time to prepare the ingredients. That is why, according to her, the cake is more expensive than the mass-produced type on a technological line.

However, this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, the market is somewhat quiet due to weaker purchasing power than previous years. Accordingly, although there are more handmade products with new shapes, the overall purchasing power of moon cakes is still lower than last year.

Ms. Uyen said her facility received about 300-400 orders, down 30% compared to 2023. Similarly, Ms. Linh also sold only nearly 500 boxes of cakes. The selling price remained the same despite the input material price increasing 15% compared to last year.

Faced with this tightening consumer spending trend, many supermarket chains have also launched their own branded mooncakes. Instead of focusing on diversity, some units have shifted their focus to the low-end and mid-range segments, with each cake costing only a few tens of thousands of VND.

A representative of WinMart said that the system will launch 1 million mooncakes to the market this year. The main product line includes a traditional box of 4 cakes priced at VND220,000, each cake weighs 100 grams, equivalent to VND55,000 per cake. A box of larger cakes costs VND300,000, equivalent to VND75,000 per cake. To attract consumers in the context of reduced purchasing power, WinMart also applies a 15% discount for large orders.

Similarly, Saigon Co.op also introduced low-priced cakes to the market, while increasing production output by 30% compared to last year.

Major companies in the top 10 market shares this year also adjusted their business plans. Orion developed a line of "True Moon Cakes" for the mid-range segment, priced from 60,000 to 77,000 VND each. Instead of distributing widely, Orion focused on selling through B2B channels and agents in the North.

As for KIDO Group, CEO Tran Le Nguyen said that in addition to the familiar brand KIDO's Bakery, the company also developed the Tho Phat cake line, priced from 55,000 to 85,000 VND each.

To stimulate demand, this company not only sells through traditional, modern, and e-commerce channels, but also livestreams sales throughout the season...