HCMCity (VNS/VNA) - The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for mooncake, abaked pastry that symbolises family reunions and which is traditionallyconsumed as part of the celebrations.

Despite the difficult economic situation this year caused by the COVID-19pandemic, mooncake sales have started early with confectionery companieslaunching many new flavours and diverse designs and packaging in addition totraditional favourites.

Companies have also tried to stimulate demand and increase convenience forcustomers.

Big names like ABC Bakery, Mondelez Kinh Do, Bibica, Thanh Long, Dai Phat, andGivral have already started selling though the festival is only on October 1this year.

Dai Phat offers 38 varieties this year, with a focus on Tainwanese-flavourmooncakes with fillings like lotus seeds, coconut milk, durian, black sesame,birds’ nest, abalone, seafood, chocolate, and fruits.  

ABC Bakery is offering mooncakes made from dragon fruit and coffee andingredients imported from the US.

Kao Sieu Luc, the company’s general director, said mooncakes are traditionallymade from 20 ingredients like sugar, flour, glutinous flour, melon seeds,cashew nuts, green beans, char siu, sausages, and salted eggs, but his companyhas created a new line using famous local agricultural products and US oneslike almonds, raisins, walnuts, oats, and cheese to offer diverse choices, hesaid.

A Bibica Corporation spokesperson said though the pandemic is still unabated,his company would launch 600 tonnes of mooncakes, the same as last year. 

There would be 60 luxury, nutritional and traditional items besides salted egglava, mochi cake, and five-coloured green bean baked mooncake/five-colouredgreen bean sticky rice mooncakes for the first time.

Although costs have increased by 5 per cent, the company has kept pricesunchanged at 39,000-165,000 VND (1.67-7 USD) per cake in the popular line and 250,000-2.5million VND (10.7-107.2 USD) a box in the high-end line.

Many amateurs too are offering handmade moon cakes with unique designs andmaterials on Facebook and other social media.

Also available are cakes imported from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

Hong Kong MX Mooncakes will sell eight varieties at prices ranging from 820,000VND (35.1 USD) to 1.55 million VND (66.4 USD) for a box of four to eight.

This year it will introduce the custard twins mooncake box with its two mostfamous flavours, lava custard and creamy custard. The box will carry the imageof rabbits, a symbol of luck, and festive colours to match the season.

It will also launch other treats such as the white lotus seed paste mooncakewith egg yolk and the low-sugar white lotus seed paste mooncake with egg yolk.

A spokesperson for the brand said, “Our aim is to bring high-end mooncakesimported directly from Hong Kong that will satisfy the needs of cosmopolitanbuyers in the Vietnamese market.”

When asked about their forecast for demand this year, many manufacturers saidthe same thing: “unpredictable."

To sustain demand, companies are offering discounts, free shipping and givingaway free greeting cards.

Besides setting up booths to sell their mooncakes, producers have also steppedup sales online through their own websites and e-commerce platforms such asTiki, Shopee and Lazada.

They said prices this year are mostly steady though manufacturers using a lotof imported ingredients have increases them by 3 percent./.