China's Worst Moon Festival Ever: Mooncake Sales Halved, Sellers Collapse With Billions Unsold

A man in Guangdong recently showed off the mooncakes his company gave out for the mid-autumn festival. He used one of the mooncakes to smash walnuts, cucumbers, and even dent aluminum cans. In the end, he grabbed a hammer, but still could not break the mooncake. Another user shared a mooncake given by a neighbor. Because it was so hard, the user spent a long time chopping it with a knife, saying it was even harder than cutting ribs. Despite that, the user still thanked the neighbor. However, many people reacted with mixed feelings. This mooncake is great. You could eat it and use it for self-defense. One bite could knock your teeth out. I thought it was made of stone. This looks like you could break the knife instead. Some users also expressed concern, saying, there's no way to know what was added inside. A video circulating online recently showed a woman trying to cut a mooncake, but the filling was so hard that she could not slice through it. After forcing it open, she found a wire inside and was completely confused. It was made by Suzhua Zhuang Business College. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of China's traditional holidays. Every year, many universities provide holiday gifts for students and staff. Some schools choose to make their own mooncakes in campus cafeterias. However, students complained that the mooncakes they received were so hard, they made loud banging sounds when hit against metal rods. Mooncakes are supposed to be made from flour, so why were some harder than bricks? Some people say it's because large amounts of additives are used in mooncakes to extend their shelf life and allow them to be stored for longer periods. Some users posted screenshots showing that a small mooncake contained dozens of different additives, calling it a clear example of high-tech and ruthless food processing. One person said, this doesn't feel like celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. It feels like a murder attempt. Nowadays, more and more people are concerned about eating safe and healthy food. Traditional mooncakes are often very sweet, high in calories, and greasy. Even more concerning, some contain too many additives, which no longer matches people's expectations for healthier food. Some users also said mooncakes are almost impossible to eat nowadays, especially the expensive ones. They claim the fillings are full of artificial ingredients, and the more complicated the designs become, the worse they taste. In previous years, the week before the Mid-Autumn Festival was usually the peak sales period for mooncakes. But this year, mooncakes at stores, supermarkets, and street markets have been left untouched. Oh my gosh, look at this street. There isn't even a single person here. These mooncakes are displayed for dozens of meters, and the stalls are piled up like little mountains, but nobody is buying them. The vendor is standing here under the hot sun. Are people not eating mooncakes this year? Today is the 8th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Let me ask one more time. Do you have money, but don't want to buy them? Or do you want to buy them, but don't have money? Just give me a straight answer and let me give up. I'm frustrated too. I'll sell them at whatever price I bought them for. If I have to, I'll lose 10 yuan. Come on. Every year, I would usually stock up on at least 30 to 50 boxes, sometimes even 80 to 100 boxes of mooncakes. But look at this year. After thinking it over, I only ordered 10 boxes. I just didn't dare to buy more. In the past, if I bought too little, I worried there wouldn't be enough to sell. This year, I'm the one getting more cautious. People say it's because of the overall economic situation. But what does that have to do with us? This year, I only brought in a few boxes of chusheng and a few boxes of daoxiangkun, adding up to 10 boxes in total. I really don't dare to stock up blindly anymore. If I can't sell them, I'll just eat them myself. This festival is really causing headaches. Milk isn't selling, mooncakes aren't selling, drinks aren't selling either. Are you all not celebrating the holiday anymore? Oh my goodness, this is unbelievable. Look at this street. There isn't a single person here. The mooncakes are lined up row after row, but nobody is even asking about them. Look at this. The mooncakes are piled up like a mountain. What's going on? There's not a single customer. Is nobody eating mooncakes this year? It looks like these mooncakes are going to be very hard to sell this year, so I want to suggest to mooncake factory owners, don't produce too much. I'm worried that after the mid-autumn festival, they'll all send the leftover stock here for clearance and they'll lose even more money. Looking at this pile of mooncakes now, I'm really worried. I honestly regret getting into the mooncake business. I thought that with my reputation, selling mooncakes would be easy and I would make big sales. So I even went to a mooncake factory in Huaput to inspect the products, and then brought back several truckloads of mooncakes. But I never expected that after posting on social media, I found that everyone around me was also selling mooncakes. How can we compete? It feels like this year's business is worse than last year. Everyone is selling at huge discounts. As mooncake distributors, many people find this situation very unusual. In previous years, this is always the busiest time, and they often had to work with supermarkets and stores on promotional events. But this year, there's been no activity at all. They're sitting at home every day, worrying as they look at mooncakes filling their warehouses. Look at this everyone. I originally wanted to bring in a large amount of stock and make some good money during the mid-autumn festival, but now it's all sitting here in the sun, and there isn't a single person around. It looks like the mooncake market this year is really struggling. For small businesses like us, even making a living has become difficult. We're clearing out the stock now. Whoever wants them, come quickly. The mid-autumn festival is just around the corner. Many physical store owners were hoping to make one last wave of sales during the holiday, but they are finding that nothing is selling and there is still no customers. Look at this entire street. This may be the worst mid-autumn festival in the past decade or more. With the economy in such a difficult situation, everyone is worried about making a living. As the economy slows down, people are also socializing less, so store owners should stock up less. Otherwise, products may expire before they can be sold. Even mooncakes are not selling this year. Has the overall situation really become this difficult? But then again, stock investors are losing money, business owners are losing money, everyone is struggling. Do you know why mooncakes and fruit are not selling well this year? The mid-autumn festival is almost here, but there is hardly any holiday atmosphere. It looks just like the scene when supermarkets struggled to sell drinks this summer. Kiwi fruit, winter jujubes and grapes are neatly displayed in the market, but few people are asking about them. I think one reason is that people are paying more attention to health now and are being more careful when spending money. They first look at whether the quality is good. With the current economic situation, everyone is budgeting carefully and does not want to spend money casually. For example, customers who come to buy from me always ask first, how's the quality of these compotes? Are they naturally ripened? Many users say mooncakes are high in oil, sugar and calories. This man has run a street stall for many years and says sales have been slow recently. Today is September 17th, and the peak sales period before the mid-autumn festival ended a week ago. Over the past two years, the week before the festival has generally been a slow period for sales. The mid-autumn festival was followed by October 1st, China's National Day holiday. Based on my years of experience and analysis, the same pattern happens every year. Inventory builds up during the week before the festival, and continues for about two weeks afterward. According to Fast Moving Consumer Goods Network, the mooncake market faced an unusual cold spell before this year's mid-autumn festival. Sales revenue at major stores fell 45% year-over-year, while gift box sales dropped 49%. The market has declined for the second consecutive year. Last year, the mooncake market was worth more than 28 billion yuan, down 5.9% from the previous year. Production totaled 518,000 tons, marking the first decline in nearly a decade. This year, even early discount promotions by businesses have failed to significantly boost sales. High-end mooncakes have been hit especially hard. A 2026 survey by the China Bakery and Confectionery Industry Association in August found that gift boxes priced above 500 yuan now account for less than 2% of sales through regular channels, down sharply from 7.2% in 2023. Sales of luxury gift boxes priced above 1,000 yuan plunged 76% year-over-year. Meanwhile, simple gift boxes priced between 68 yuan and 200 yuan now hold more than 60% of the market share. For distributors, when business was strong, they used to purchase inventory worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, or even more than 1 million yuan, each month. Now with weaker consumer spending at physical stores, there are far fewer walk-in customers, Sales have also declined, and naturally their orders have also decreased. These days, businesses across many industries are struggling. On top of that, people are doing less business with each order, and there are far fewer exchanges of favors. Naturally, fewer people are giving gifts as well. Individual and household purchases have also been affected by the economic downturn. People are cutting back on spending and trying to save money, when a box of mooncakes can easily cost hundreds of yuan. Many consumers simply choose not to buy them if they can avoid it. Why are mooncakes no longer selling? has recently become a hot topic of discussion on Chinese social media. Are people really not eating mooncakes this year? It's already the second day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, but there is still no feeling that the mid-autumn festival is coming. In previous years, at this time, streets and alleys would be filled with all kinds of mooncakes and beautifully designed gift boxes. Usually, people would start buying holiday gifts before the festival, but this year, these gift boxes are just sitting there. They simply cannot be sold. Why is this happening? I think one reason is that people now check the ingredients list and care more about health. They are avoiding foods with too much sugar and oil. It's similar to what is happening with beverages, where sales have dropped significantly because people have become more aware of the health risks of sugary drinks. Another issue is that mooncake prices are not transparent. A gift box can cost several hundred yuan, but I don't think the mooncakes inside are worth that much. People say the mooncake market has collapsed. Honestly, it is not anyone else's fault. The industry brought this on itself. A mooncake that costs 0.8 yuan to make gets put into a metal box and sold for 80 yuan. The packaging has become more exaggerated every year. Prices have become more unreasonable, and the fillings are starting to look like a chemistry experiment. Buying a gift box and getting mooncakes as a bonus has always become an industry rule. This year, young people are pushing back and saying, I'm not buying anymore, let it collapse. Now manufacturers are stunned, distributors are suffering, and the mooncakes hoarded by resellers are going bad. This is not just consumers spending less, it is consumers finally becoming more aware. Nobody's money comes from nowhere. Why should people keep paying extra and being taken advantage of every year? Mooncakes are not selling well offline, and online sales are also struggling. The mooncake business is moving away from a model where companies can make a year's profit in one month. I've been selling mooncakes for 10 years, and this is the first time I feel there is no future for this business. We have quality products, but people say we're too expensive. We have launched promotions, started livestream sales, and offered discounts, but we still haven't even reached one third of last year's sales. This year's mooncake business is really difficult, whether online or offline. There are no customers coming into our store. We've brought back more than 2,000 pounds of mooncakes, but we haven't sold much. In our livestream room, we only sell about three or four mooncakes a day. Adding online and offline sales together, we may only sell around 10 mooncakes a day. I have stores on three online platforms, but if we don't promote them, there are no orders. Even when we promote them, there are still no orders. For small shops like ours, surviving has become extremely difficult. This is the current situation for mooncake factories this year. At this time in previous years, there would be many orders, but this year, we don't know where all the orders have gone. Look how quiet it is. We have to change careers. We must change careers. If we don't, this situation will drive people crazy. We cannot continue like this. Mooncake manufacturers usually work overtime to increase production during this period every year. But this year, everything is unusually quiet. The equipment has already stopped. There's no one in the workshops. There's no need to produce more because there are no orders, and anything produced may not be sold. Ten days before the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 15, Jinju, one of the largest mooncake manufacturers in Wuchuan, Guangdong province, announced that it had completely suspended operations and closed its factory. In the video, workers can be seen using high-pressure water hoses to wash the ground outside the company entrance, with water spraying everywhere. The video caption said, 2026 Jinju Mooncake Production Suspended. Employees on Holiday. See you next year. This is not a small workshop that could no longer survive. Jinju Food Industry is one of the most established and well-known mooncake brands in Wuchuan. Some users said Jinju mooncakes are too expensive. They believe that spending 200-300 yuan on one large mooncake is not worth it, and they would rather buy cheaper alternatives. Young people are now becoming the main force in the mooncake market. The 25-35 age group account for 42.7% of mooncake consumers, making them the largest consumer group. They're more practical and rational, focusing on value for money and health, and are no longer willing to spend simply to maintain appearances. Some users said the cost of ingredients in mooncakes account for only 3-20% of the selling price, creating excessive profit margins. One person said, A box that sells for 200 yuan usually costs only around 20 yuan to make. Mooncakes that cost 5-10 yuan each are put into an 8-piece gift box and sold for 168 yuan. In today's market, aside from gift-giving, how many people actually buy mooncakes just to eat them? Take myself as an example. Suppliers give me several boxes every year. I keep one or two nice-looking boxes to bring to my father-in-law's family, and my brother-in-law may turn around and bring them to his father-in-law's family. It sounds like a joke, but it's actually very real. The main sales channel for mooncakes has always been group purchases, so the impact has been significant. Without the gift-giving occasions, market demand naturally declines. One user said they are involved in government and corporate welfare purchases. They said this year's purchasing volume has dropped sharply. On one hand, many companies have carried out large-scale layoffs. On the other hand, corporate budgets have also been reduced, leading to a major decline in demand for bulk purchases. A white-collar worker surnamed Li, who works at a state-owned enterprise, told Chinese media. In the past, the company gave employees mooncakes at every mid-autumn festival, and clients also exchanged gift boxes with each other. Now, all that has decreased. Leaders are telling everyone to live more frugally, so non-essential items like mooncakes are naturally the first to be cut. A person working in a government department in Shandong said, During the mid-autumn festival, people are more likely to have family gatherings, and there are much less gift exchanges. The period around the mid-autumn festival has always been an important peak consumption season in China. But this year, the situation is far from optimistic. The hardest-hit segment is business gift mooncakes, with some media describing the market as a complete collapse. In previous years, many companies purchased mooncakes in bulk to give to clients. But this year, there are almost none. Companies are suffering losses, government revenue is declining, unemployment is rising, and anti-corruption campaigns have continued one after another, with businesses closing down one after another. Who still dares to give gifts? And even if someone gives them, few people dare to accept them. One mainland blogger said that houses are no longer selling, gold and jade products are no longer selling, rosewood furniture is no longer popular, and high-end cigarettes and alcohol are struggling. Unexpectedly, even mooncakes have now fallen out of favor.