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Celine Sun

'Made in Hong Kong' baby food and formula are not the only products craved by mainlanders. The city's bakers of mooncakes are grabbing a bigger slice of the 14 billion yuan (HK$16.2 billion) market for the mid-autumn delicacy across the border.
 Maxim's says it expects a double-digit rise in sales at its 50 shops and more than 1,000 retail outlets  on the mainland this year. To boost sales, the company has even established an online shop on the country's biggest shopping portal, Taobao.
Another baker, Wing Wah, has also seen demand from the other side of the border jump 20 per cent. 
 Poor food safety standards on the mainland means added cachet for the 'Made in Hong Kong' label, allowing Maxim's and Wing Wah to sell their mooncakes at higher prices than in Hong Kong.
According to  the China General Chamber of Commerce, the country is expected to make 250,000 tonnes of mooncakes, bringing in revenue of 14 billion yuan  this autumn.
Aside from directly run shops in the Pearl River Delta, Maxim's, Wing Wah and Tai Pan, another Hong Kong cake maker, have expanded their networks to other parts of the nation, opening counters in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Dalian and Chengdu. 
Beijing resident Xie Ningning, on a last-minute mid-autumn shopping trip in the capital, yesterday bought a box of mooncakes  for a friend at a Wing Wah counter. The gift box containing eight mooncakes with different flavours cost him 480 yuan. 
'I've been buying  this brand for almost a decade. I love its delicate taste.  It never changes,' the wine trader said.
Mooncakes, linked with the mythical legend of moon goddess Chang'e, is a symbol of family unity and is a must-have item during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In recent years, they have become popular corporate gifts.
Usually round or rectangular, the cake can have different pastry and fillings depending on the region. The Cantonese style is the most popular; other styles come from  Beijing, Suzhou, Yunnan and Chaoshan. A mooncake usually features a thin crust and a thick filling  of lotus seed paste, melon seed paste and ham, chicken or egg yolks.
Hong Kong bakeries first entered the mainland market in the 1980s. Leung Suet-yee, a spokeswoman for Wing Wah, said its products were initially sold on the snack carts of trains running between Hong Kong and Guangzhou and were ideal gifts for relatives as they visited their hometowns on the mainland.
But with duties as high as 40 per cent at the time, the Hong Kong-made mooncakes were just too pricey for most mainlanders. When the delicacy was included as one of the tariff-free products under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement signed in 2003, their retail price fell by up to 30 per cent.
Hong Kong mooncakes are considered of better quality than mainland-made ones. In 2001, the mainland  industry was hit when a well-known bakery, Nanjing Guanshengyuan, reportedly put year-old filling in new cake crusts.
Hong Kong brands have become better known thanks to the millions of mainland tourists who now visit the city every year. 
Kang Yali, a distributor for Tai Pan snowy mooncakes in Beijing, developed her business from one small booth to more than 30 counters over the past four years. Sales have jumped from 1,000 boxes to more than 7,000 this year. 
'People like it for its fresh taste and good quality,' Kang said. 'I plan  to order 5,000 more boxes from Tai Pan [to sell in Beijing] next year.'
Despite the impressive growth, the sales of Hong Kong cakes are still only a small fraction of those of some mainland brands. 
In Shanghai, Xing Hua Lou has always been a top seller, while the market leader in Beijing is Dao Xiang Cun. Guangzhou Restaurant is a major seller in the Guangdong market. 
'Our advantage lies in the price,' said a spokeswoman for Dao Xiang Cun, which supplied 2,300 tonnes of mooncakes in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province this year. 'We are very optimistic about remaining number one in Beijing.'
According to Dao Xiang Cun, a box of double-egg-yolk cakes with lotus seed paste cakes costs 56 yuan. The same type sold in a Wing Wah gift box is priced at 298 yuan in some Beijing shopping centres, while Maxim's costs 288 yuan. These prices are even higher than in Hong Kong, where Wing Wah and Maxim's charge HK$308 and HK$175 respectively.  
Higher transport costs are among the reasons for the bigger price tag, according to the distributors. 
'What we are actually targeting is the high-end market.  It's no doubt the mainland market will exceed that of Hong Kong,'  Leung said.
Bigger bite
Mooncakes cost much more on the mainland than in Hong Kong
Wing Wah says the demand for its mooncakes on the mainland increased this year by: 20%



HK's slice of mainland mooncake market grows