How will Chinese eat mooncakes in 2020?

Considering consumers, market and culture, time data launched the 2020 mooncake data consumption report (hereinafter referred to as the “report”). Based on the content of the report, we will explain to you the trend of Chinese mooncake consumption in 2020.

Unlike traditional Chinese foods such as dumplings and zongzi, the process of moon cakes is more complex, and few consumers can make mooncakes at home. Therefore, compared with dumplings and zongzi, the production and sales of moon cakes are more stable and exuberant on festivals. In 2019, China produced about 364000 tons of mooncakes, an increase of 1.4 percent over the same period last year, and sales of about 19.67 billion yuan, an increase of 7.9 percent over the same period last year. According to another report, sales of mooncakes in China reached 1.38 billion in 2019, equivalent to one mooncake for every Chinese.

In addition to eating for yourself, moon cakes are also good gifts. In 2020, Chinese consumers’ willingness to buy moon cakes reached 60.4%, of which 20.6% were intended to be bought and given away, accounting for more than one third. Among the 39.6% of consumers who do not plan to buy, nearly half of them think that the company will give it away and do not have to buy it themselves.

Due to the demand for gifts, luxury has also been popular in China’s mooncake market, with exquisite and gorgeous packaging, mooncakes have almost completely become a social tool, food positioning has been diluted. The cost of the materials of mooncakes are relevantly low, but the packaging cost is very high. The bad impression of moon cakes in many people’s minds began to form from then on.

According to the report, 51.1% of consumers buy mooncakes with less than 99 yuan, and only 2.3% of consumers buy more than 300 yuan. This shows that moon cakes are returning to the nature of food and are no longer pure gifts and luxuries.

In modern China, moon cakes have long been not only a traditional food, but also integrated with more modern materials and techniques. On the one hand, some well-known brands have joined the army of mooncake makers. Non-traditional mooncake brands such as Starbucks, Hey Tea, Nayuki, Bestore, THREE SQUIRRELS and Haagen-Dazs have all participated in the production and sale of mooncakes and introduced shapes and flavors that are different from traditional mooncakes, bringing new vitality to mooncakes.

On the other hand, established mooncake manufacturers have also begun to improve their skills and increase innovation. Guangzhou Restaurant,Beijing Daoxiang Village,Shanghai Ganso,Hong Kong Maxim, has introduced more moon cake flavors that are popular with modern consumers.

However, from the data point of view, mooncake rookies to shake the status of time-honored brands, it is more difficult in the short term. In 2019, the online sales share of Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes, TOP10 are time-honored brands, the top three are Suzhou Daoxiang Village, Hong Kong Huamei,Zhejiang Wufangzhai.

According to the report, the TOP5 of online word-of-mouth of mooncake brands in 2019 is Guangzhou Restaurant, Suzhou Daoxiang Village, Zhejiang Wufangzhai, Hong Kong Maxim and Beijing Daoxiang Village,. Mooncake brands preferred by consumers are still traditional brands, accounting for 70.5%.

In terms of taste, 78.4% of consumers said that the most acceptable taste of mooncake was still the traditional taste, 19.3% fully accepted innovative taste or other taste, and 2.3% of consumers chose healthy taste.

Chinese people often suspect that young people no longer like traditional food, but this worry is superfluous. The report shows that the core characteristics of mooncake consumers are highly educated and younger. In the distribution of academic qualifications, college students account for the highest proportion, accounting for 60%, followed by senior high school, accounting for 27%; in the age distribution, post-90s account for 47.83%, post-80s and post-00s account for 23.44% and 17.62% respectively.

In terms of taste, there is a large gap between the preferences of young consumers and middle-aged and elderly consumers, but some flavors are loved by the whole people. According to the report, pastries with egg yolk, yogurt and minced meat flavors are popular among various generations of consumers. Among them, egg yolk is a very traditional category of moon cakes, while yogurt belongs to innovative taste.