Demand surges in China ahead of Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day holidays

With the arrival of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday, markets across China are seeing booming sales, backed by strong supplies ranging from assorted mooncakes to leafy greens and fresh seafood.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, mooncake sales have entered their peak season in cities across China. At a long-established pastry shop in north China’s Tianjin Municipality, customers keep staff busy packing and restocking mooncakes. The shop owner said that the daily sales are now close to 400,000 yuan (about 60,000 U.S. dollars).

Many merchants in Tianjin are focusing on new flavors and offering freshly made, in-store mooncakes, attracting customers eager for both taste and freshness.

“Our master chefs make every mooncake fresh on the spot, wrapping and baking each one by hand. Sometimes customers buy them while they are still warm, straight from the kitchen,” said Xiao Huifang, shop owner.

To ensure sufficient supplies for the busy season, markets nationwide have stepped up efforts. At Changsha HiGreen agri-products logistics park in Hunan Province, the largest wholesale market in central China, deliveries of vegetables from Yunnan, Shandong, Guangdong and other regions start early each morning. Local specialties and a wide selection of leafy greens and fruiting vegetables fill the stalls.

The market supervisor said that vegetable trading has increased by nearly 30 percent recently, reaching a daily volume of 15,000 tonnes. With over 300 types of vegetables, they keep supply steady and diverse.

Fruit markets are also bustling. At the Hongxing Global Agricultural Wholesale Center in Changsha, the region’s largest fruit trading hub, daily fruit sales average 13,000 tonnes, reaching close to 20,000 tonnes on peak days.

Meanwhile, seafood supplies are swelling along China’s eastern coast. At major fishing ports in Rizhao City, Shandong Province, fishing boats have begun returning en masse with holiday catches.

“We brought in over 1,000 boxes of fish, including pomfret, hairtail, and mackerel. Prices are higher than previous years, and the fish are bigger too,” said Wang Mai, boat owner.

At local seafood markets, the holiday shopping rush is in full swing as residents select from the day’s fresh catch, preparing for festive meals.

Dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, matters far beyond the two countries themselves, said Adnan Z. Amin, chair of the officers’ council of the World Energy Council (WEC), a global network of energy organizations.

In a recent interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Amin said such dialogue gives the wider world grounds for optimism, and that the economic issues between the two sides can only be resolved through sustained engagement.

“It’s absolutely essential. I think when you have two of the biggest economies in the world in dialogue and collaboration, it makes a difference for the rest of the world. It provides an optimistic approach, it provides a positive kind of perspective of where we can be going. There are hard issues to discuss. The economic trade-offs are not inconsequential. They need to be addressed. And the best way to do it is through dialogue. And to see President Xi in Washington today is very encouraging, because I think that dialogue is essential today,” he said.

Amin added that policymakers should set aside reflexive hostility and focus on the tangible benefits that cooperation can bring to people in both countries.

“We need to get beyond this kind of knee-jerk antagonism that you see in certain policy circles in different countries around the world to really look at what is the reality today. How will our collaboration improve the lot of people in our countries? And what are the best areas for us to do (work on) and who has to take responsibility for what. This is essential,” he said.