It was only after a round in the sky that the world looked up. On the full moon night of the Mid Autumn Festival, every household puts on moon cakes, which symbolize happiness and reunion, to enjoy the rare happiness of the world. The variety and taste of Chinese moon cakes, coupled with the young people's love of appearance, have triggered the moon cake packaging market.
In the cost of mooncake, packaging accounts for most of the mooncake gift box. Soochow Securities Research Institute has made a careful calculation. The unit cost of packaging materials (printing, sponge, etc.) is about 14.04 yuan / kg, while the unit cost of raw materials consumed by the moon cake itself (eggs, flour, oil, etc.) is 12.45 yuan / kg. The packaging cost is much higher than the cost of raw materials. This also means that the packaging of moon cakes is the bulk of the company's expenses.
In the seven years from 2015 to 2021, the output of moon cakes increased from 328000 tons to 398000 tons, with an increase of 22% in the output scale, and the demand for moon cake packaging increased to 5.6 billion yuan. It is expected that in 2022, China's moon cake production will increase to a large extent, which is expected to reach 437000 tons, and the packaging demand will further expand to 6.13 billion yuan.
Preliminary survey of moon cake sales in 2022
Judging from the situation reflected by merchants around the world, thanks to the love of young people for traditional culture and the explosion of countless customized moon cakes, this year's moon cake market is promising.
The reporter of Nanfang Daily learned from several retailers that this year's Mid Autumn Festival is the peak consumption season, and moon cakes are still the protagonists. Young people's acceptance of moon cakes has increased. One of the main reasons behind this is that moon cake products are becoming younger and more dim sum. Some businesses predict that the sales of moon cakes this year will increase by 20% compared with last year.
Dingdong shopping recently released the 2022 Mid Autumn Festival consumption data report, which pointed out that young people's acceptance of moon cakes is increasing, and this is more because of the younger and sweeter moon cake products. It is estimated that during the peak consumption period of this year's Mid Autumn Festival (9.5-9.12), the sales volume of moon cake products will increase by 20% compared with last year's Mid Autumn Festival.
The two "real estate mooncakes" sold by jinshanghui life supermarket in Anqing are doing well. The salesperson said: "the price of mooncake gift boxes this year is lower than that in previous years, and the mooncake gift boxes produced by local enterprises are more popular with consumers."
Traditional moon cakes are still selling well. "This year, the top five mooncake online sales in Wal Mart's hypermarkets are Liuxin milk yellow, Wuren golden leg, Shuanghuang lotus seed, ice covered mooncake and cloud leg flavors, which show that consumers are equally fond of fashion and traditional flavors." Zhu Jun, chief purchasing officer of Wal Mart's hypermarket, introduced that most of the mid autumn moon cake buyers belong to self consumption.
Packaging "weight reduction" is more practical
Behind the prosperity of mid autumn moon cake consumption, we can also see the strong supervision of relevant functional departments of the government. The national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of industry and information technology, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of market supervision jointly issued the announcement on curbing "sky high" moon cakes and promoting the healthy development of the industry, which proposed that "key supervision should be carried out on boxed moon cakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan" and "precious metals, mahogany and other precious materials should not be used in the packaging of moon cakes".
This year's Mid Autumn Festival, the "sky high" moon cake disappeared, and the price was more people friendly; Excessive packaging is no longer, and simplicity has become the mainstream. The green and low-carbon consumption concept is returning at an accelerated pace, and the good social trend of "sharing the bright Mid Autumn Festival" has taken shape.
The reporter of Nanfang Daily noted that most of the moon cake gift boxes choose paper packaging. Instead of designing complicated and cumbersome packaging boxes, they pay more attention to the taste of the moon cakes in the box and the design of the patterns on the packaging. While reducing excessive packaging waste, the appearance does not decrease, and the moon cakes return to the public food attribute.
At present, the number of moon cakes with excessive packaging problems in the market has greatly decreased, and the "slimming" effect of moon cake packaging has emerged. Some moon cake boxes not only successfully achieved "weight reduction" in packaging, but also attracted many consumers with their practicality and creativity.
For example, an old brand moon cake produced by Jiangmen Xinhui is only packaged with a layer of edible paper. The packaging boxes of other brands of moon cakes have multi-purpose properties. After eating the moon cakes, the boxes can be used to make jewelry boxes and paper towel boxes.
For example, this year's "good luck" moon cake gift box of miaozhou Huichao takes the vending machine as the design inspiration and opens it by pulling. Each small box pulled out is a different blessing, and only one can be taken out at a time. It seems that different good luck comes one after another, which is fun and interesting. The transparent window above the gift box can see the falling process of the box, and the background can also be lit, which truly and interestingly restores the selling scene of the vending machine. The gift box is made of frosted UV material and three-dimensional relief technology, which more realistically simulates the metal texture and real hand feel of the vending machine.
In short, the mid autumn moon cake has begun to return to the "flavor" of traditional festivals, so that traditional food has both "cultural flavor" and "beauty of life".
In the past few years, corporate humanism, represented by Internet manufacturers, has been increasingly exposed, and more attention has been paid to the sense of belonging and ceremony brought by customized packaging of moon cakes. In the moon cake market, there is a gratifying situation in which traditional moon cake manufacturers and large enterprises' personalized customization complement each other.
The 30th anniversary moon cake gift box of Shenzhen Airlines is made of sugarcane pulp. The combination of white and cyan shows a high-grade feeling. It is reported that the package is made by Shenzhen aimeida.
Cross border brands have joined the market competition
Compared with previous years, this year's moon cake market has also attracted many enterprises to join, including Naixue, a tea brand, three squirrels, a snack brand, liangpin shop, HEMA Xiansheng, a fresh food retailer, and xiabuxiabu, a chain restaurant. These cross-border enterprises have provided more novel flavors for the moon cake market, and consumers have more options besides buying traditional moon cakes.
On July 1 this year, Moutai launched two sets of moon cake gift boxes, Yuhu moon greeting and Liuxin moon cake. The prices are 188 yuan / box and 318 yuan / box respectively, totaling about 100000 boxes. At present, the two official moon cake gift boxes have been sold out. Today, Maotai Liuxin moon cakes, which originally cost 188 yuan, have been sold to more than 300 or 400 people, and they are still out of stock. It can be said that "one cake is hard to find".
Starbucks has launched Western-style moon cakes for 22 consecutive years, and this year's theme highlights "Reunion". Li Jie, manager of Starbucks Zhenxuan flagship store in Tianjin, said: "this year, Starbucks mooncakes adopt a sugar reducing formula, which reduces the sweetness by 25%. Gift boxes can be reused, transformed into photo frames, display boxes, storage boxes, etc., which are low-carbon and environmentally friendly."
Naixue and tmall jointly launched the "treasure" box of the round circle, which uses 30% wheat straw and 20% coffee grounds to make a "sustainable moon cake box". It is printed without ink and can also be used as a storage box.
The annual Mid Autumn Festival has passed away like water. We look forward to the next Mid Autumn Festival when the major packaging and printing enterprises will once again launch all kinds of good packaging for everyone.
