Mid-autumn festival good to retailers

Mid-autumn festival is just around the corner and like most Chinese holidays, one of the preferred ways to celebrate it is by eating. Many businesses that cater for this demand are seeing an upturn in sales after the last few slow years.

In addition to spending on traditional holiday gifts like mooncakes and pomelos, many Taiwanese have in recent years added "barbecuing in the moonlight" to the list of things that must be done with the family.

The mid-autumn festival falls on the first full moon of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, or Sept. 21 this year on the solar calendar.

The moon is always at its fullest and brightest on that night and this phenomena is symbolized in the holiday's main snack, the moon-shaped mooncake.

Spreading the cakes and pomelos by the boxfull starts up to two weeks before the holiday -- which is a boon for cake makers this year.

"We are seeing a nearly 20-percent jump in mooncake sales this year compared to last year," said Jen Liang-jung (任良蓉), a deputy manager at Isabelle Taiwan Co (伊莎貝爾食品), a maker of mooncakes and wedding cookies. She explained that last year mid-autumn festival came right after Typhoon Nari had hit Taiwan and the public was caught up in cleaning up after the deadly storm. "This year the public is in a more comfortable situation for celebrations."

The company has sought to differ its marketing from the competition by avoiding the traditional mystery pastes in the cakes -- such as ground lotus seeds, jujube paste and duck eggs. Instead, new varieties include vanilla cheese, lavender, lemon, coconut and coffee-flavored mooncakes.

Offering discounts -- 25 percent off -- on boxes of the sweet and salty delights has proven a good strategy with the current weak economy, Jan said.

Traditional food company Hsin Tungyang Co (新東陽食品) agreed with Jan, saying that axing prices is a necessary evil in order to boost sales. "Since consumers always tighten their belts in an economic downturn, we sell our mooncakes at about 10 percent lower than before," said Lin Hsuan-chen (林軒臣), HsinTungyang's marketing manager.

Most Hsin Tungyang mooncake boxes sell at between NT$500 and NT$1,000, while premium cakes stuffed with abalone and shark's fin are priced at NT$1,280.

Meanwhile, with this year's mid-autumn festival falling on a Saturday, supermarkets are eyeing family barbecue outings under the full moon as the perfect opportunity to make a buck.

"People don't have to get up early for work the next day and therefore they will have more time and energy to barbecue," said Lilian Lee (李莉莉), public relations manager at Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福).

She added that Taiwan's 20 Carrefour outlets sold more than a million grill-ready shish kebabs over last weekend.

"We are ready for another sales spike on mid-autumn festival day," she stressed. While most people would have had their fill of mooncakes by the time the big day arrives, barbecuing with family and friends is when the real celebration begins.

That same day many families break out boxes of pomelos -- also know as shaddocks -- and make hats out of the thick, soft rinds.

Both French-based Carrefour and French-Taiwanese venture RT-Mart (大潤發) have cut prices on pomelos to as low as NT$8 per gram. "The price is a little bit lower than before, because this year saw a record harvest. Most pomelos are also very juicy and sweet," said Fiona Wang (王彤芳), an RT-Mart manager.