Chinese businesses see rising sales of Mid-Autumn Festival goods

Chinese businesses said they are seeing rising sales of Mid-Autumn Festival goods boosted by demand from both domestic and international customers, with creative products that blend both classic and modern touches being most sought after.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. Around China, people celebrate the day by gathering for moon-gazing, eating mooncakes, and lighting colorful lanterns. This year, the festival falls on Sept 25.

In east China's Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, some business operators are busy sending Mid-Autumn Festival goods to international customers.

One of them is Sun Lingjuan, whose store has rolled out a set of special products, including earrings, bracelets, and necklaces to meet the rising demand.

"We informed our clients of the new products three months in advance. We received more orders for this set of products from Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia," said Sun.

Chinese lanterns with various Mid-Autumn Festival-themed patterns are also attracting increasing customers.

"We started wholesale shipments about half a month ago. Now, we are receiving growing offline orders from small buyers. We got large wholesale orders about half a month ago. We are also replenishing some of our products," said Yu Xiaoqian, a Chinese lantern seller.

In Shanghai, a novel type of mooncakes in yellow-rice-wine flavor is enjoying rising popularity among consumers.

Li Ronghua, general manager of Shanghai Liangxin Food Company Limited, said the mooncakes have seen higher-than-expected sales since they were put on the market last year, and the company is now producing over 50,000 pieces daily. Li said their products are also attracting Hong Kong customers and they have sent a batch of yellow-rice-wine flavored mooncakes to the region through cold chain.

"We decided to use five-year-old yellow rice wine for our mooncakes to produce layering flavors. Once customers get our pork mooncakes home, they can simply heat them up in an oven or air fryer and then enjoy a delicious treat," said Li.

According to the latest data, Shanghai Customs has supervised the export of over 40 tonnes of mooncakes valued at about 4 million yuan (about 600,000 U.S. dollars). They were destined for multiple countries and regions, including the United States, Australia, and Malaysia.

Chinese businesses see rising sales of Mid-Autumn Festival goods

High-level dialogue is the key to greater stability for business cooperation between China and the United States, said Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai at a recent interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Zheng pointed to China's steady narrowing of its negative list for foreign investment as a signal of a more open business environment, noting that the 2024 version trimmed the list to 29 categories.

"China has really opened up to foreign investment by shortening this negative list in the past few years. The most recent version, 2024 version, actually shortened that list down to 29 only categories. China is in a position to continue to shorten that negative list. By opening up more sectors such as telecom, services, medical, even healthcare, China has more room to open up to foreign investment by shortening the negative list," he said.

On the broader bilateral relationship, Zheng welcomed China and the U.S. building a constructive relationship of strategic stability amid closer exchanges between their leaders, saying it directly affects the bottom line of American companies in China.

"With the new framing of the relationship, namely constructive relationship of strategic stability, that's great news for our companies because we're always looking for stability. So I think the two governments talking to each other, that provides stability. So as far as specific measures, I think maintaining stability in trade policy and export control measures will be very, very helpful as far as our operations go," he said.

On artificial intelligence (AI), Zheng said the United States and China are undisputed leaders in the field and should explore how their respective strengths can complement one another.

"It is a fact that the United States and China are the two leading players in the AI space. There's no question about that. And I think the Chinese models, the open-source models can really provide access to more users in developing countries such as countries in the Global South. So those are the commercial considerations. I hope they can complement each other, learn from each other," Zheng said.

High-level dialogue key to greater stability for U.S.-China business cooperation: AmCham Shanghai