Customers buy mooncakes at a supermarket in HCM City. Mooncake producers have launched many new products for the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. — Photo courtesy of Central Retail

HCM CITY — With the Mid-Autumn Festival drawing near the mooncake market is bustling.

People can find a wide array of cakes with all sorts of flavours and eye-catching design and packaging.

This year new brands have made an appearance alongside familiar names to offer a broader range of choices to customers.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the “Children’s Festival” in Việt Nam, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which falls on September 17 this year.

Mooncakes are commonly given as a gift during the festival.

This year KIDO Group Corporation offers mooncakes under two brands, KIDO’S Bakery and Thọ Phát, the latter a newbie in the market.

Thọ Phát offers traditional mooncakes with fillings like green bean, taro, lotus seeds, coconut milk, lap cheong sausage and mixed fruits, and roasted chicken, while KIDO’S Bakery uses premium ingredients such as abalone, shark fin, Alaska shrimp, and scallops.

Phương Diêm Thuận Bakery in District 6 is filled with customers these days.

Phương Triển Phong, its owner, said people started buying mooncakes in early August, one to two weeks earlier than normal.

The bakery is selling 18 varieties this year, and mooncakes with pineapple, and taro, lotus seed paste and juice of panda leaf are the top sellers, he said.

For the first time, it is selling mooncakes with a scallop and XO sauce filling.

Thành Long Bakery, one of the oldest mooncake producers in HCM City, is offering eight new mooncake box designs at VNĐ150,000-850,000 each.

Hoàng Ngọc Thanh, its sales director, said a distinctive feature of Thành Long's mooncakes is that it produces and processes the main ingredients using traditional family recipes, giving the cakes a unique and pure flavour.

People can find a wide array of mooncakes with all sorts of flavours and eye-catching design and packaging. Photo courtesy of MM Mega Market

Other major players in the mooncake market like ABC Bakery, Givral, Brodard, Đại Phát, and prominent hotels such as Sheraton Saigon and Caravelle Saigon have also launched new mooncakes.

According to market players, with people’s health awareness increasing, they have launched low-sugar, vegan and gluten-free mooncakes.

Distribution systems such as Saigon Co.op, Central Retail and MM Mega Market are displaying mooncakes in eye-catching positions to make it easier for shoppers.

A Saigon Co.op spokesperson said the co-operative’s chains of stores, including Co.opmart and Co.opXtra, are selling a range of mooncakes from affordable to high-end from well-known brands such as Mondelez Kinh Đô, Như Lan, Bảo Minh, Kido, and Đại Phát.

Its private label, Co.op Bakery, has launched a new mooncake line with both vegetarian and meat options.

The fresh mooncakes are handcrafted by skilled artisans using natural ingredients and without preservatives priced from VNĐ50,900 per piece.

Mooncakes with environmentally friendly packaging at Co.opmart. — Photo courtesy of Saigon Co.op

Central Retail in Vietnam (which owns GO! and Big C supermarket chains) is selling 19 mooncake varieties at prices ranging from VNĐ29,000 to VNĐ99,000 per piece, equivalent to VNĐ240,000 to VNĐ500,000 per box.

Nguyễn Thị Bích Vân, head of communications at Central Retail in Việt Nam, said a new feature of the mooncakes sold by GO! and Big C is that, besides being affordable, they also contain 30 per cent less sugar compared to last year and minimal quantities of preservatives.

It is also offering various promotions like a 15 per cent discount on orders worth VNĐ1 million.

MM Mega Market is selling more than 100 different mooncakes made by big brands such as Mondelez Kinh Đô, Hữu Nghị, Bibica, Richy, and Phúc Long.

Customers who buy mooncakes at any MM Mega Market outlet for VNĐ650,000 or above will receive a voucher worth VNĐ100,000.

With the rise of e-commerce, in addition to traditional brick-and-mortar stores and modern retail outlets, consumers can also order mooncakes from a variety of brands and have them delivered to their doorstep on popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Grab, and the TikTokshop.

According to mooncake producers, though the prices of inputs have increased significantly this year they have only hiked mooncake prices slightly amid the economic downturn. — VNS