Market in mooncakes hit as crackdown on graft bites
Print Edition
FORTY-FOUR officials have been punished for sending or receiving mooncakes to celebrate last year’s mid-autumn festival and the one to come, which falls on September 8 this year.
The officials, from government departments and state-owned enterprises, were involved in 30 cases in 12 provinces and cities. In 27 cases, officials spent state funds on mooncakes, China’s top disciplinary watchdog said.
Traditionally, mooncakes are made of cheap ingredients such as red bean and lotus seed paste.
But in recent years, the festival delicacy had become an expensive “gift” used to win favors from officials, build business connections or as bribes.
Many contained luxury freebies, such as shark fin or abalone. Producers would also put high-end tea or wine in gift sets, taking their value to thousands of yuan.
On September 3 last year, the Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Investigation, as part of efforts to crack down on corruption, called for restraint in the giving and accepting of gifts or using public funds to pay for banquets during festivals.
On August 10 this year, the commission opened up a channel on its official website for information about anyone using state funds to buy mooncakes as gifts.
The crackdown has chilled the mooncake market.
Last year, sales across the nation fell by 25 percent, mainly because of a dramatic drop in group purchases, according to China Association of Bakery and Confectionery Industry figures. State-owned companies and government offices were believed to have been the main customers for expensive gift sets.
Several mooncake producers have complained about a lack of orders this year and many of them are now focusing on the lower end of the market where mooncakes cost under 10 yuan (US$1.63) a piece.
In supermarkets in many cities, the price of gift sets rarely rises above 200 yuan.
“Mooncakes have returned to be a festival food,” Gao Bo, chairman of the Beijing Bakery Association, told the Beijing News.
Outside a Xinghualou store in Shanghai, scalpers have complained about a lack of business, according to a News 90.9 radio report.
In previous years, they could buy a 200-yuan mooncake ticket for 80 yuan and sell it at 140 yuan. But this year, they are spending 140 yuan to earn just 10 yuan.
“Companies and institutions are no longer handing over mooncake tickets. How could our business be good?” one scalper said.
At the Xinya Cantonese Restaurant on Nanjing Road, Li Yu, an official of the 87-year-old establishment said group sales had dropped 20 percent. But sales of individual mooncakes had increased 50 percent.
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