Can't have the mooncake and eat it too: Why China is cracking down on the holiday dessert

In President Xi Jinping’s China, there’s no place for expensive and luxurious gifts.

In the run-up to Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival in China, bakers are in for some trouble as authorities are cracking down on “sky-high” prices of the country’s favourite holiday dessert, mooncake.

Owing to its popularity and demand around holidays, international online shopping guides have collated the places to find the most extravagant boxes of mooncakes. Some mooncakes cost as high as £20 (Rs 1,830) for each cake, according to The Guardian.

Let’s take a closer look at the latest crackdown by the Chinese government.

How is China cracking down on mooncakes?

Authorities from the anti-corruption and commerce wings of the government have targeted sellers who are overcharging mooncakes or using “expensive packaging” which surpasses the limits on production costs.

Law enforcement officers have inspected around 180,000 sellers and suppliers since August.

Sellers are also required to keep sales records of the dessert for two years, as a part of an ongoing anti-corruption campaign.

According to officials, some sellers are flouting the pricing limits of mooncakes by pricing them at 499 RMB or Rs 5,716 (the official currency of the People’s Republic of China). Some have even bundled mooncakes with other products like nuts and liquor, mislabelled them as “pastry gift sets” or sold them as part of high-end packages at hotels.

Why are mooncakes so expensive in China?

Mooncake is a customary dessert that is baked in various designs and contains different types of fillings. They are distributed among friends and families during important festivals like Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a big celebration in China.

According to The Cold Wire, there are a lot of reasons why mooncakes are on the pricier side including expensive packaging and low availability of other desserts that can replace them.

In recent years, manufacturers have upped their game by setting mooncakes in lucrative packaging. Hence, the customer sometimes ends up paying more for the packaging than the actual product itself.

When certain brands attach their names to the mooncakes, the prices tend to go up. Luxury labels like Gucci, Prada, Fendi and Dior have made their own versions of mooncake boxes, reports Jing Daily.

Another reason why mooncakes are so expensive is that there’s no available substitute for dessert. As demand grows during festive seasons, customers are left with no option but to purchase mooncakes, which have also become a “status symbol” in the recent past.

Were there any previous crackdowns on mooncake?

Yes.

In 2013, the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said that the government had announced that officials would no longer be able to use public money to buy and send mooncakes as gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival, according to a report by CNN.

A year later, in 2014, in an effort to tackle corruption, officials warned the public against handing out expensive mooncakes as gifts during holidays.

How else has China called a war on societal excesses?

In 2018, China’s ministry of civil affairs banned “vulgar wedding practices” like expensive wedding gifts, lavish ceremonies and demands for increasingly high bride prices.

In 2020, the Xi Jinping government launched another campaign in a bid to reduce food wastage. As a part of the campaign, which was famously called “operation empty plate”, restaurants were asked to offer half-size and smaller portions to customers. The campaign also limited the number of dishes a table could buy, reports The Guardian.

With inputs from agencies

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