Chengdu Zongzi Prices Hit Highest in Years as "Luxury Disease" and Elaborate Packaging Take Hold

Yesterday, the Third Dragon Boat Festival

Commodities Expo and Zongzi Culture Festival opened at the Shawan Convention and Exhibition Center in Chengdu, with more than a hundred well-known zongzi companies gathering. The reporter noticed that among the zongzi brands led by Wufangzhai, Qianwei Fang and Baguo Buyi, gift-box products costing hundreds of yuan were the main items being promoted. According to a person familiar with the matter, because mooncake and pastry makers have been joining in

, throwing effort into packaging and add-on products, zongzi this year looks set to follow in the footsteps of

, and prices have already risen to their highest level in years.

As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, bulk-purchase business at many supermarkets is gradually heating up; almost all large supermarkets have assigned staff specifically to handle group buying and have set up group-buying promotions.

Visiting major supermarkets in Chengdu, the reporter found that merchants'

zongzi sales are increasingly brisk, and a sales peak is expected this weekend. Among them, Carrefour has launched a promotion for Dragon Boat Festival foods under which a one-time purchase of

yuan earns a special discount; Ito-Yokado has set a rule that a one-time purchase of gift-box zongzi

of a certain number of boxes or more enjoys an extra discount. Many other merchants offer free packaging with the purchase of festival foods, and free home delivery above a certain purchase amount.

Market Oddity: Bamboo Baskets and Rattan Crates as Packaging Are All the Rage

The reporter also found that, besides being packaged in all kinds of exquisite paper gift boxes,

zongzi are also widely packaged in bamboo baskets and rattan crates. A gift box from Baguo Buyi, which since this year makes only gift-box zongzi, priced at

more than yuan, uses two bucket-shaped containers about

centimeters tall to hold diamond-shaped zongzi, preserved duck eggs and Zhuangyuanhong yellow rice wine; a Qianwei Fang gift set priced at

yuan comes in a golden-yellow paper box containing six flavors of zongzi and wild-egg preserved eggs

According to the organizers, at this zongzi culture festival's exhibition hall and at the major Ganso food specialty stores around the city, what really catches the eye is

. Yesterday at a large supermarket the reporter saw a product including

-proof Wuliangye, bird's nest beverages, organic salted eggs, zongzi and other goods

Luxury mooncakes latch onto zongzi

This year's zongzi come in many varieties, and red bean paste, lotus seed paste, red bean with salt and pepper, abalone and scallop, five-grain, matsutake and egg yolk fillings all show the former

year when Wufangzhai zongzi sold out in the Sichuan market, mooncake companies that previously paid no attention to zongzi have had to re-examine this market. It is understood that Wufangzhai, which currently holds the lion's share of the Sichuan zongzi market, has already increased output this year, and other followers are rushing to bet on the zongzi market.

Not only mooncake companies, but traditional pastry companies, Western pastry shops and coffee houses have all put up

this year. Visiting major markets in the city, the reporter found that Longwang, Qinyuan, Jiahe, Tianlun and others rarely seen before have moved into the zongzi display areas of major supermarkets; although these brands' zongzi do not yet cost over a thousand yuan, they are quite

Reporter's Observation: Zongzi Also

Zongzi are an indispensable food for the Dragon Boat Festival, and even if prices rise, people will still buy them. Merchants seize on exactly this psychology to push high-priced zongzi. At the same time, mooncake and pastry companies that never previously gave the zongzi market a thought have charged in with great fanfare, looking very much like they will follow in the footsteps of

the mooncake market.

Eating zongzi at the Dragon Boat Festival is connected with the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, to keep fish, shrimp and crabs from biting his body, local people went to the riverside and threw zongzi into the water to feed the fish, shrimp and crabs. If zongzi also

, I think it would not only fail to prove that people value the Dragon Boat Festival and traditional culture, but the traditional festival would also

. In fact, zongzi do not cost much to make; even if raw material prices rise further, companies cannot fail to profit. While merchants rejoice in earning high profits, they inevitably also raise the cost for ordinary people of celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-370005.html