Extravagant mooncake gift-sets are ubiquitous for the Sept 27 Mid-Autumn Festival, brightening the glorious weather witnessed in Beijing and other places last week.
The scene was in contrast to the last two years when mooncake sales were savaged by the nationwide anti-graft campaign that saw bans on use of public funds to buy them and on officials from giving or receiving expensive mooncake gift-sets.
This year, however, high-end hotels and supermarkets have put on their shelves luxury mooncakes in a variety of flavors and attractive packaging.
For instance, Beijing's China World Summit Wing Hotel is offering two extravagant mooncake sets in addition to its regular ones. The 1,588-yuan ($250) deluxe set comes with abalone, a bottle of imported wine, olive oil, exotic chocolates and other freebies. Its packaging is exquisite, couched either in a hand-woven bamboo basket or a delicate-looking wooden case.
Mooncake-makers are expected to raise this year's output by 5 to 20 percent. So, "out-of-stock" situations are unlikely. For instance, the Beijing Daoxiangcun Foodstuff Co, known for its famous mooncake brands, plans to produce more than 2.25 million kilograms of mooncakes this year, up 10 percent year-on-year.
"This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls very close to the National Day holiday in October. We expect mooncake sales to grow this year," said Zhu Nianlin, director-general of the Chinese Association of Bakery and Confectionary Industry.
According to the association, mooncake sales are expected to rise 10 percent this year. Since mooncakes typically last for 60 days, a major portion of gift-sets and bulk orders was made early this month.
Online outlets that offer luxury mooncakes and gift coupons, sometimes at reduced prices, are adding to the mooncake market buzz this year.
Hungry shoppers warned over online orders from overseas
Officials have warned consumers to be vigilant about the safety of mooncakes bought from overseas on e-commerce platforms, ahead of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.
Retail industry sources have reported a surge in online purchases of mooncakes from outside the Chinese mainland in preparation for the festival, which falls on Sept 27 this year, when Chinese traditionally gather for family reunions.
A random search of overseas buying agents of exotic varieties of mooncakes, can yield as many as 10,000 results on Taobao.com, China's largest e-commerce platform.
Most of the mooncakes aimed at domestic consumers come from Vietnam, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Beijing Morning Post reported on Sunday that numerous consumers had already experienced mooncake-delivery problem, with many orders intercepted by the authorities at quarantine checkpoints.