This year, China’s National Day holiday coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival, creating an eight-day ‘Super Golden Week’ holiday.
As of this time last year, China was still under strict Covid-19 lockdown policies, this year's travel numbers have significantly increased. China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism predicts that during this year’s Super Golden Week holiday, domestic tourism trips will reach 896 million, a year-on-year increase of 86 percent.
Yet, in recent months, concerns about the Chinese economy have been widely shared. Particularly regarding the country's housing market, the banking industry, and a lack of consumer demand.
Some of these concerns are reflected in fruit and vegetable consumption and sales. The Mid-Autumn Festival, an Autumn harvest celebration, traditionally coincides with fresh fruit consumption and sales. The holiday is also a celebration of fancy fruit gift boxes.
Examples of fruits in festive gift-packaging kits
This year, however, fruit prices seem to be lagging behind.
Traditionally, this celebration is good for apple sales, yet this year's prices are below earlier seasonal norms. A dragon fruit exporter from Ecuador has also noticed that, in recent years, Chinese consumers would use this holiday to purchase and try premium-priced imported fruit, but this year demand is down.
That said, companies that are using the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration as a special marketing occasion do seem to reap benefits. Rockit Global from New Zealand launched a number of tailored campaigns and saw sales numbers jump ahead of the holiday week, with Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes driving more than 50% of all sales. Prices of durian sales are also strong.
