Handmade moon cakes in Nghe An "attract customers"

Ms. Bui Hanh said that the amount of moon cakes she makes and sells increases with each moon season. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In contrast to the gloomy trading atmosphere of shops, kiosks, and marketsmoon cakeon social networking sites such as Zalo, Facebook... are quite active, in which the best-selling are handmade cakes. Ms. Bui Hanh (Ben Thuy ward, Vinh city), a person specializing in handmade cakes for nearly 7 years, said that up to now, the amount of cakes she has sold to customers is up to hundreds of different types.

If last year, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, she only produced a small amount of Mid-Autumn Festival products according to pre-orders from her "regular customers", this year, the number of customers is expected to increase sharply, so from the beginning of the 7th lunar month, she proactively imported double the amount of raw materials, invested in more machinery and hired more workers to meet the needs of customers.

The number of customers increased so she had to hire more seasonal workers to help with some of the baking steps. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In addition to the long-standing customers,Mid-Autumn FestivalThanks to promoting on Facebook, Zalo, and Fanpage, she has a relatively large number of new customers. “More and more, customers prefer homemade moon cakes. Because, in addition to the trust in acquaintances, having bought and used them for many years, what makes many people choose handmade moon cakes is that they can order according to their requirements from shape, weight to taste, type of filling, saltiness - sweetness...”, Ms. Bui Hanh said.

Handmade cakes are mainly handcrafted, requiring meticulousness in every detail. Photo: Thanh Phuc

As a long-standing birthday cake business, this Mid-Autumn Festival, the bakery on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street is also "overloaded" with many orders from companies, units, and agencies as gifts.

According to Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, the owner of this bakery, since July, large orders have been finalized, the main customers are businesses buying gifts for partners, so there are specific requirements for the form and quality. There are orders of up to hundreds of pieces, so in addition to the store's 3 regular employees, entering the moon cake season, she had to recruit 5 more seasonal employees to keep up with the orders received.

This year in particular, in addition to direct orders, many agents and collaborators have also contacted to place wholesale orders for redistribution. Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Quynh said: “The number of wholesale orders is also quite large, mainly from grocery stores, coffee shops and many online businesses. That shows that handmade cakes are very popular.”

Compared to moon cakes from famous brands, handmade moon cakes come in more sizes, colors and flavors, and are advertised as having no preservatives, no food additives, and being “homemade”... Photo: Thanh Phuc

Having been selling moon cakes for decades, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai - owner of a confectionery store in Vinh market (Vinh city) said that before, she only sold cakes from famous brands or bakeries in the area, but this year she has imported "homemade" cakes produced by individual households.

“I import and sell whatever customers are looking for. In recent years, customers have been very fond of this type of homemade cake, even though the price is not cheaper than that of big brands. The reason is that compared to moon cakes of famous brands, handmade moon cakes have more sizes, colors and flavors. Especially, there are no preservatives, no food additives, “homemade” so it is more secure…” - Ms. Hai said.

Compared to previous years, due to the high price of input materials, the price of cakes has also increased by about 10-15%. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Also because of the changing needs and tastes of the people, more and more people have a "side job" on this occasion, which is making moon cakes with the "homemade" brand. Besides the "home kitchens", conscientious bakers who always put prestige and quality first, are meticulous and meticulous in choosing ingredients and processing, there are also many people who consider this a "seasonal business" and only care about profit without paying attention to quality and food hygiene and safety.

Therefore, when buying handmade moon cakes, consumers need to clearly understand the production facility, pay attention to the brand, reputation, pay attention to labels, ingredients, additives used, product expiry date... to avoid the situation of "losing money and getting sick" when buying poor quality products that do not ensure food hygiene and safety.