Every Mid-Autumn Festival, moon cakes will be “punch-in” as scheduled, comparing fillings and creativity, and the market melee is very lively. This year’s mooncake market, due to the emergence of the most stringent “slimming order”, has aroused public debate faster than in previous years. A few days ago, in order to curb the “astronomical price” of mooncakes, the National Development and Reform Commission and other relevant departments have issued documents one after another, focusing on the supervision of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan, as well as prohibiting excessive packaging, tying and mixed sales, etc. Under the heavy hammer, is this year’s moon cake really cheap?
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For a long time, the high-profit mooncake market has been tempting new players to join, such as HEYTEA, Maotai, etc. After encountering the “price limit”, the entire moon cake industry, especially the Guangzhou Restaurant (SH603043, stock price 22.02 yuan, market value 12.5 billion yuan) and other listed companies that focus on moon cakes, has also attracted much attention.
Photo source of digital collections issued by Guangzhou Restaurant: Official Weibo of Guangzhou Restaurant
In the wave of the Metaverse, the Mid-Autumn Festival is ushered in. Daily Economic News reporters noticed that listed companies, well-known companies, and digital platforms have all sold “digital mooncakes”, with prices starting from a few yuan, and some were fired up to tens of thousands. Under the “Slimming Order”, the moon cake “assassin” actually ran into the Metaverse. Will the sky-high moon cake be “resurrected” here?
This year’s physical mooncakes ushered in the strongest “price limit order”
The moon cake “assassin” suffered the most severe rectification this year.
From June, the National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments jointly issued the “Announcement on Curbing “Sky-High” Mooncakes and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Industry”, to August, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a centralized rectification of excessive packaging of commodities, “sky-high” mooncakes and crabs Notice on issues such as card and crab coupons; and the “Restriction of Excessive Packaging Requirements for Food and Cosmetics”, which was officially implemented on August 15, clearly stipulated that the maximum number of packaging layers for moon cakes should not exceed three layers and should not be mixed with other products. All of them show the determination of the relevant departments to promote the “lightweight” and “slim down” of moon cakes.
“During the centralized rectification process, the overall price of boxed mooncakes this year is lower than in previous years, and boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan have dropped significantly compared to previous years.” The regular press conference in the third quarter of 2022 stated, “As of now, 81,565 market entities such as hotels and supermarkets have been inspected across the country, and the average price of mooncakes is 157 yuan per box.”
Under a series of measures, the “high-priced” mooncakes, which have been criticized by consumers, have almost disappeared from major platforms. On September 9, the Daily Economic News reporter checked multiple e-commerce platforms and saw that the price of gift box mooncakes this year is almost below 500 yuan. There are only a few brands that take advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival’s popularity in the form of ice cream and other forms, selling “alternative” mooncakes for nearly a thousand yuan.
Image source: E-commerce platform
“To curb the ‘high price’ of moon cakes, on the one hand, can stop the unhealthy trend of giving gifts during festivals, and let festival consumption return to the origin of traditional culture; Excessive packaging promotes the healthy development of the industry.” On September 9, Zhang Yi, founder and CEO of iiMedia Research Consulting Group, said in an interview with every reporter.
The cost price of gift box mooncakes is within 60 yuan
During the traditional festival of Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese people eat a huge moon cake market. Data from iiMedia Research shows that from 2015 to 2021, the sales of moon cakes in China are on the rise, from 13.18 billion yuan to 21.81 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 24.38 billion yuan in 2022.
Therefore, even if it is seasonal food, moon cakes can provide huge profits for enterprises, attracting new and old players to flock.
Guangzhou Restaurant is a leader in the moon cake industry. The company’s business segment mainly focuses on moon cake series products and quick-frozen food. The financial report shows that in 2021, Guangzhou Restaurant’s moon cake business will generate 1.521 billion yuan in revenue, cost only 662 million yuan, and have a gross profit margin of 56.46%. In fact, since its listing in 2017, the gross profit margin of Guangzhou Restaurant’s mooncake series products has exceeded 60% for three consecutive years, and has decreased in the past two years. In 2020, it was 58.37%.
Mooncake boxes are also a big money maker. Yuanzu shares (SH603886, stock price of 17.56 yuan, market value of 4.21 billion yuan), before merging the moon cake gift box business with the Chinese and Western pastry business, from 2016 to 2019, the company’s moon cake gift box gross profit margin was above 60%.
Small mooncakes not only affect traditional mooncake companies such as A-share companies, but also KFC, HEYTEA, Hermes and other brands are competing to enter the market. This year, Maotai mooncakes are half a month away from the Mid-Autumn Festival, and they are sold out and then sold on second-hand platforms. bid a high price.
Image source: “2022 China Mooncake Supply Chain and Customer Consumption Trend Big Data Monitoring Report”
“The cost of moon cakes in gift boxes is between 35 yuan and 60 yuan, and they can be sold for hundreds of yuan in the market. Profits are guaranteed for merchants.” Zhang Yi analyzed to every reporter why moon cakes have high profits. At the time, he also mentioned that many brands now make moon cake coupons, “We have calculated that the production cost of (moon cake coupons) is 2 cents. In addition to the issuance cost, it is about 5 yuan. But how many people will go to pick up moon cakes? Therefore, The merchant issues 100,000 mooncake coupons, and only prepares 1% of the actual items.”
Today, moon cakes have encountered the strictest “slimming order”, and the limit of less than 500 yuan will affect the moon cake industry? “It will hardly affect.” Zhang Yi said, “We have been doing research on the mooncake market since March this year. During this process, we have in-depth exchanges with more than a dozen domestic leading companies, and the market sales of the gift box mooncakes they produce are in the market. The price is mostly between 150 yuan and 200 yuan.”
Zhang Yi believes that the “high-priced” mooncakes on the market are produced by small and medium-sized or unbranded, speculative mooncake manufacturers, and this part will be affected by the “price limit” of mooncakes.
Beware of being cut leeks by digital mooncakes
The “Slimming Order” limits the hype of physical mooncakes, but makes virtual “digital mooncakes” active in the metaverse.
Every time the reporter noticed, listed companies, well-known enterprises, digital collection platforms, etc. all sold “digital mooncakes”. Among them, Guangzhou Restaurant began to issue 10,000 mooncake figures in a limited number from September 1, hoping to grab the C position in the Metaverse; the well-known mooncake production base “Hepu Mooncake Town” launched a “digital collection” with the theme of Hepu big mooncakes; Chocolate brand Godiva has created five Mid-Autumn limited digital collections around mooncakes. In addition, Taiyi Shuyi, Celestial Shuizang, Octave Space, Toad Palace Digtial and other platforms have also launched mooncake Shuzo, with prices starting from a few yuan.
Image credit: NFR House
According to Beiqing Daily, a customized digital moon cake launched by an e-commerce platform has recently been fired to a sky-high price of more than 30,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan on the second-hand trading platform.
“Digital mooncakes are also a type of digital collections. We have monitored that there are 50,000, or even 70,000 mooncakes bought from the store.” Zhang Yi pointed out to every reporter that the “astronomical” mooncakes that disappeared offline are passing through digital The form of the collection is “resurrected” in the metaverse.
Liu Xingliang, president of the DCCI Internet Research Institute, told the reporters that due to policy restrictions, data collection cannot be traded twice, but some platforms allow the transfer of gifts after a certain period of time. Many players use this to conduct private transactions, which is gray zone.
Zhang Yi is cautious about “Metaverse Mooncakes”, “It is certain that buying digital mooncakes will be cut into leeks, and consumers are not recommended to buy them. From our analysis of the people who buy digital collections, they are mainly post-00s college students. Purchasing digital Tibetans may also cause serious problems such as online loans for young people.”
Reporter / Du Wei
Editor / Yang Xia