Malaysian food companies make more mooncake varieties to raise market shares
Sunday, 27 September 2009
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 (Xinhua): Malaysian mooncake manufacturers have introduced a wide range of mooncakes to maintain their competitiveness amidst the global economic crisis.
Mid-autumn Festival, or simply the Mooncake Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar while it falls on Oct. 3 this year.
Apparently, Malaysian manufacturers have put in much effort in mooncake packaging designs. Innovative recipes are reflected in the wide varieties of mooncakes, including those combining the Eastern and Western flavours.
Tai Thong, one of Malaysia's leading companies in the food and beverage (F&B) sector, has included fruits and green tea in its mooncakes ingredients instead of sticking to the use of lotus paste and red bean.
Low sugar mooncakes are also introduced by the company to meet the demand of those who consume less sugar.
The low sugar series do not taste worse as Tai Thong has added lemon and mint to give consumers another kind of experience.
Six Happiness, another well-known Malaysian F&B company, has come up with mooncakes with Chinese herbs, namely the " Chrysanthemum Lotus with Chinese Wolfberry Mooncake".
The company also markets a special packaging that features a Chinese chessboard.
The limited edition packaging is believed to be able to attract mooncakes and chess enthusiasts.
While consumers tend to pay more attention to health nowadays, The Baker's Cottage, a Malaysian Western cake house, has introduced nutritious mooncakes using special ingredients.
Dried longan and wolfberry are used in its precious black mooncake. The two ingredients are believed to have positive impact on human bodies such as maintaining tranquillity and improving vision.
Other specialties included the blueberry blackcurrant cheese mooncake, mocha almond fudge mooncake and rich chocolate peanut praline mooncake.
In fact, the Malaysian mooncake market has captured the United States ice-cream company, Haagen Dazs.
Although it specialises in ice-cream business, the company has launched its chocolate and vanilla mooncakes.
The appearance of different mooncakes are appealing too. Kids who love cartoons will be definitely attracted by the mooncakes featuring famous cartoon characters.
President of the Malaysia Selangor and Federal Territory Ku Su Shin Choong Hung Restaurant Association Lum Tuck Loy told Xinhua that the competition in the mooncake market had intensified.
In recent years, local manufacturers have been making inroads into overseas markets, especially Hong Kong.
He said that Malaysian mooncakes offered more choices to consumers while the prices were relatively low, giving the Malaysian products strength to compete with foreign makers.
When asked about this year's market condition, Lum said sale volume would start picking up in a few more days, adding that the sluggish demand in the past one week or two was due to Hari Raya celebration, an important festival of Muslims.
Global economic slowdown had resulted in prudent spending while the A/H1N1 flu pandemic had deterred consumers from going shopping, added Lum. However, he was confident that the situation would improve in the coming week, adding that mooncake consumers were in fact increasing.
The challenges the manufacturers faced were the rising of costs and increasing number of manufacturers in the market, said Lum, adding that sugar shortage in Malaysia was one of the issues.
Mid-autumn Festival, or simply the Mooncake Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar while it falls on Oct. 3 this year.
Apparently, Malaysian manufacturers have put in much effort in mooncake packaging designs. Innovative recipes are reflected in the wide varieties of mooncakes, including those combining the Eastern and Western flavours.
Tai Thong, one of Malaysia's leading companies in the food and beverage (F&B) sector, has included fruits and green tea in its mooncakes ingredients instead of sticking to the use of lotus paste and red bean.
Low sugar mooncakes are also introduced by the company to meet the demand of those who consume less sugar.
The low sugar series do not taste worse as Tai Thong has added lemon and mint to give consumers another kind of experience.
Six Happiness, another well-known Malaysian F&B company, has come up with mooncakes with Chinese herbs, namely the " Chrysanthemum Lotus with Chinese Wolfberry Mooncake".
The company also markets a special packaging that features a Chinese chessboard.
The limited edition packaging is believed to be able to attract mooncakes and chess enthusiasts.
While consumers tend to pay more attention to health nowadays, The Baker's Cottage, a Malaysian Western cake house, has introduced nutritious mooncakes using special ingredients.
Dried longan and wolfberry are used in its precious black mooncake. The two ingredients are believed to have positive impact on human bodies such as maintaining tranquillity and improving vision.
Other specialties included the blueberry blackcurrant cheese mooncake, mocha almond fudge mooncake and rich chocolate peanut praline mooncake.
In fact, the Malaysian mooncake market has captured the United States ice-cream company, Haagen Dazs.
Although it specialises in ice-cream business, the company has launched its chocolate and vanilla mooncakes.
The appearance of different mooncakes are appealing too. Kids who love cartoons will be definitely attracted by the mooncakes featuring famous cartoon characters.
President of the Malaysia Selangor and Federal Territory Ku Su Shin Choong Hung Restaurant Association Lum Tuck Loy told Xinhua that the competition in the mooncake market had intensified.
In recent years, local manufacturers have been making inroads into overseas markets, especially Hong Kong.
He said that Malaysian mooncakes offered more choices to consumers while the prices were relatively low, giving the Malaysian products strength to compete with foreign makers.
When asked about this year's market condition, Lum said sale volume would start picking up in a few more days, adding that the sluggish demand in the past one week or two was due to Hari Raya celebration, an important festival of Muslims.
Global economic slowdown had resulted in prudent spending while the A/H1N1 flu pandemic had deterred consumers from going shopping, added Lum. However, he was confident that the situation would improve in the coming week, adding that mooncake consumers were in fact increasing.
The challenges the manufacturers faced were the rising of costs and increasing number of manufacturers in the market, said Lum, adding that sugar shortage in Malaysia was one of the issues.