Although the Mid-Autumn Festival is more than a month away, roadside shops selling moon cakes have sprung up in Ho Chi Minh City.
Tin Tuc (The News) newspaper reported that on main streets like Nguyen Thi Minh Khai in District 1, An Duong Vuong in District 5 and Xo Viet NgheTinh in BinhThanh, customers can find moon cakes from famous brands like Kinh Do, Bibica, NhuLan, Dong Khanh, and others.
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| A Kinh Do's stall in Ho Chi Minh City. |
Kinh Do, by far the biggest player in the market, has produced 3,000 tonnes of various kinds of cakes for the festival.
Besides the traditional varieties that come stuffed with lotus seed, chicken, pork or salted egg, producers have introduced new ones with green rice flakes, chocolate, almond and black garlic.
They cost 55,000-450,000 VND (2.3-20.4 USD) per cake, an increase of 3-5 percent from last year.
There are also vegetarian moon cakes in green soy, green tea, Indian taro, and hazelnut flavours that are also less sweet than the meaty ones and cost 20,000-300,000 VND (0.9-13.6 USD) each.
Many people also buy imported cakes like mochi from Japan, preferring them for their new and unique flavours.
According to a staff at Mochi Sweets in District 1, the shop has imported around 2,000 boxes of 12 cakes each for the festival. They come in 22 different flavours like green tea, cherry, butter, and blueberry and cost 28,000-32,000 VND (1.3-1.4 USD) each.
Nguyen Xuan Luan, deputy general director of Kinh Do Binh Duong Company, said: "Positive changes in the economy have stabilised people's incomes and promoted consumer spending. The moon cake market is expected to grow, with sales increasing in both the luxury and medium segments."
A number of local companies have produced moon cakes for export to the US, Canada, Australia, China and other markets.
Overseas Vietnamese were fond of moon cakes made in Vietnam, Luan said, adding it was an item his company had been exporting regularly in recent years.
Source: VNA