Sino-Singapore Jingwei, August 15th (Yan Shuxin intern Chen Shiqing) It is less than a month before the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, and various mooncake gift boxes have begun to be launched on offline supermarkets, e-commerce platforms and other channels.
Recently, the Sino-Singapore Jingwei survey found that at present, there are many moon cake gift boxes in the market that are priced below the regulatory red line of 500 yuan. 600 yuan; there are even merchants who secretly sell mooncake gift boxes with a price of up to 2,000 yuan offline.
The list price is 499 yuan and the actual payment is 1099 yuan?
In June this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the "Announcement on Curbing "Sky-High" Mooncakes and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement"), explicitly encouraging operators To produce and sell boxed mooncakes of good quality and low price, it is proposed to implement key supervision on boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan; the operator should properly store the transaction information of the sales of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan for 2 years for the relevant departments. Check according to law, etc.
However, in the actual investigation, Sino-Singapore Jingwei found that many merchants played "edge balls" in terms of prices in order to avoid the above-mentioned "Announcement".
On August 15, Sino-Singapore Jingwei searched for "moon cake gift box" on an e-commerce platform, and selected the price to sort from high to low. It was found that many moon cake gift boxes were priced at 499.99 yuan, which was only a penny away from the 500 yuan regulatory red line. Poor, but only a few items show that someone has paid, and most gift boxes have 0 monthly sales.
Source: Screenshot of an e-commerce platform
"The country does not allow the retail price of moon cakes (gift boxes) to exceed 499.99 yuan. Manufacturers are more afraid of this rule than we are." A customer service staff of a store introduced that a "New Crown" brand moon cake gift box (1750 grams) priced at 499.99 yuan in the store is retailed by manufacturers. The price is 498 yuan, and last year, the retail price of the gift box reached more than 1,000 yuan, and the store sold more than 800 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that the actual transaction price of the moon cake gift box is much higher than the listed price.
Sino-Singapore Jingwei saw in a gift shop that a "Tianlun" brand mooncake gift box (1540 grams) produced by Sichuan Tianlun Food Co., Ltd. was priced at 499.99 yuan, but consumers were required to pay an additional 600 yuan for shipping. The gift box is priced as high as 1099.99 yuan.
Source: Screenshot of an e-commerce platform
The customer service staff of the store said that the actual price of this gift box is more than 499.99 yuan. If it is sold at the listed price, it will lose money, and the 600 yuan shipping fee is used to make up the difference.
He also mentioned that this gift box should not be sold on e-commerce platforms, but only offline. The reason why it cannot be priced according to the actual price is because of "national regulations".
It seems that it has become the "consensus" of some online merchants to transfer high-priced mooncake gift boxes to offline sales.
Sino-Singapore Jingwei saw on another e-commerce platform that in a shop specializing in selling all kinds of food gift boxes, many moon cake gift boxes are priced at 499 yuan and 498 yuan. When asked if there are more high-end moon cake gift boxes , the store staff clearly said "yes".
"This year, it is stipulated that moon cake gift boxes of more than 500 yuan cannot be sold online, but we have them offline. There are moon cake gift boxes in various price ranges, and the high-end ones are around 500 yuan to 2,000 yuan." The staff member said that his The store does not have an offline store. If consumers want to buy high-priced mooncake gift boxes, they can get a product quotation by adding WeChat. When paying, they can choose WeChat payment or public transfer.
The original price of the gift box of 588 yuan has been temporarily reduced to 498 yuan?
In fact, not only online, but also offline supermarkets also have some mooncake gift boxes priced at around 500 yuan.
On August 15, Sino-Singapore Jingwei saw in a boutique supermarket in Beijing that the merchants have set up a special moon cake exhibition area for consumers to buy. Most moon cake gift boxes are priced between 100 yuan and 300 yuan, but there are also some moon cake gift boxes. The price is close to 500 yuan, and some are even higher, but compared with mooncake gift boxes at other prices, there is no unique taste. From the appearance, it is only reflected in the more luxurious packaging and higher net content.
Among them, Maxim's "Seven Stars with Bright Moon" moon cake gift box is priced at 578 yuan, the member price is 543 yuan, the net content is 1350 grams, and it contains 8 moon cakes. The flavors include white lotus paste, egg yolk, etc. , the price of a single moon cake exceeds 67 yuan.
The sales staff said that the brand also has mooncake gift boxes of 200 yuan and 300 yuan to choose from. The higher price of the above gift boxes is because the net content is higher.
In a supermarket in Beijing, Maxim's "Seven Stars with Bright Moon" mooncake gift box is priced at 578 yuan.
Photo by Yan Shuxin of Sino-Singapore Jingwei
Sino-Singapore Jingwei also saw in the supermarket that although the price of some moon cake gift boxes from brands such as Royal Tea Restaurant and Jinhua did not exceed 500 yuan, they were also as high as 499 yuan and 498 yuan.
Among them, Jinhua 815 Shengxiang gift box (1640 grams) is divided into two layers, the upper layer contains 9 moon cakes, and the lower layer contains some nuts and cakes.
"This year, it can only be sold for less than 500 yuan. When this mooncake gift box first arrived, we were originally priced at 588 yuan, but now it has dropped to 498 yuan."
In a chain supermarket in Wuhan, the price of moon cake gift boxes is also between 100 yuan and 300 yuan. ) is priced at 578 yuan, and another "quintessence" mooncake gift box (2310 grams) is as high as 768 yuan.
In the Wuhan supermarket, the "National Essence" mooncake gift box of Guanshengyuan is priced as high as 768 yuan.
Photo by China-Singapore Jingwei
The sales staff in the supermarket said that the flavor fillings of different moon cake gift boxes are basically the same, and the brand and packaging are sold.
The average production cost is only about 70 yuan?
"Moon cakes are very profitable. Usually, the production cost of a box of moon cakes will not exceed 70 yuan. The water inside is very deep. The gross profit rate of some manufacturers can be as high as several times." Vice President of Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association , Food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng said in an interview with Sino-Singapore Jingwei.
The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission also introduced in an interview with the media that according to the cost survey of the National Development and Reform Commission and the data of industry organizations and e-commerce platforms, from the market situation for many years, the average production cost of boxed mooncakes is about 70 yuan per box. The sales of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of less than 200 yuan accounted for more than 80%, and the unit price of more than 500 yuan accounted for about 1%.
Sino-Singapore Jingwei noticed that there are also some listed companies on A-shares whose main business involves the production and sales of moon cakes, including Yuanzu, Guangzhou Restaurant, Taoli Bread, etc.
According to Guangzhou Restaurant’s financial report, in 2021, the company’s mooncake series products will have a gross profit margin of 56.46%, and achieved revenue of 1.521 billion yuan during the reporting period, contributing nearly 40% of its revenue. It is also the company’s product with the highest gross profit margin.
Yuanzu Co., Ltd. did not separately disclose the revenue and gross profit rate of moon cake products in the 2021 annual report. The company's moon cakes, rice dumplings and other products are classified into Chinese and Western cake gift boxes. During the reporting period, Yuan Zu shares Chinese and Western cake gift boxes income 1.464 billion yuan, It accounts for nearly 60% of the main business income, and the gross profit rate is 51.51%.
The gross profit margin of Taoli Bread’s mooncake products is slightly lower, reaching 22.66% in 2021. During the reporting period, it achieved revenue of 133 million yuan, accounting for about 2%.
"In recent years, the country has continued to crack down on 'high-priced' moon cakes in order to make the entire consumption more rational, healthy and orderly. Before this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, multiple departments jointly issued the above-mentioned "Announcement", which will play a role in the healthy development of the entire industry. To a very good guiding role." Zhu Danpeng said.
The aforementioned person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission also mentioned that in the future, the relevant departments will take various measures to curb the "sky-high" moon cakes, such as improving the policy system, strengthening industry guidance, and strengthening supervision and law enforcement.
It is reported that the market supervision, industry and information departments have revised the "Restriction of Excessive Packaging Requirements for Food and Cosmetics", and further tightened core indicators such as the number of packaging layers and porosity coefficient, and stipulated that precious metals and mahogany materials should not be used in moon cake packaging. Officially implemented on the 15th.
In addition, before the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, the market supervision department will also carry out a special rectification action for "high-priced" moon cakes, focusing on luxury hotels, e-commerce platforms and other channels, conducting supervision and inspection, and monitoring those that do not meet the mandatory standards for food safety and restricting excessive packaging. , as well as those who do not implement clear price regulations, price fraud and other illegal acts, will be strictly investigated and dealt with, and relevant illegal information will be incorporated into the national credit information sharing platform in accordance with laws and regulations, and will be published on the "Credit China" website and the national enterprise credit information publicity system. Announcement.
(For more reporting clues, please contact the author of this article, Yan Shuxin: yanshuxin@chinanews.com.cn) (China-Singapore Jingwei APP)
(The opinions in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investment is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market.)
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