By Wang Yanping, Qiangjiang Evening News

Though there is half a month early to the Mid-autumn Festival on September 14, the commercial competition about moon cakes has already started. What's different from previous years is that the discount season of moon cakes is shifted earlier this year, some brands even have started to sell moon cakes at half prices.

Due to the hikes of raw materials, packages, the prices of the moon cake in 2008 are higher than those in 2007. Take the band of Zhi Wei Guan as an example, most of its moon cakes fell into the price rang between 80 yuan and 90 yuan in previous years, but most of the moon cakes are sold at some 100 yuan, up by 10% over last year. As to the big markdown of those non-local brands, the insiders guess that it might be related with the highly fixed prices and inconvenient transportation.

Over packaging was a big issue in previous years. The moon cakes were sold in gift kit with high-end cigarettes, wines and even gold bars. A gift kit of moon cakes might be sold as much as 1,000 yuan. However, the binding sale is rare this year, most gift kits are sold between 100 yuan and 200 yuan.