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HCM City bakers to tap provincial mooncake market
Shrinking revenues and market saturation in HCM City have seen many mooncake makers shift their attention to neighbouring provinces.
The mooncake, a mid-Autumn festival specialty, sells like hot cakes several weeks before the festival day that falls on Saturday, October 3, this year. The festival is also known as the Children’s Tet.
Many mooncake producers said that sales in provinces have increased sharply this year.
Phan Van Thien, deputy general director of Bibica, a popular backery, said only 300 out of 1,000 retail outlets of the company have been set up in HCM City this year, as the focus has been on nearby provinces.
“The mooncake market in the city is saturated with many popular brandnames while those usually made by small enterprises in provinces and rural areas are not of high quality,” Thien said.
With better economic conditions, provincial people are now willing to spend much money for quality products, he said, adding that this year, the company plans to produce 400 tonnes of mooncakes, 85 percent of which will be sold in other provinces.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lien, brand manager of the Kinh Do Corporation, said only 22-25 percent of the company’s 1,200 retail outlets have been set up in HCM City this year. The markets in provinces have been developing every year, she said.
The reduced number of mookcake stores in HCM City is partly due to regular traffic congestion, higher prices and costs of leasing space.
Nguyen Thanh Thuan, a mooncake seller on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street , said sales this year was much lower than previous years. Every year, at the time, customers would flock his shop to buy mooncake.
According to the staff of an auditing company, mooncake prices have increased 15-20 percent over last year.
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