China is expected to release a state standard this October on the packing of moon-cake, a kind of traditional Chinese food for mid autumn festival, to curb the high-rising price of the food. The standard will be put into effect from next year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Moon cake is a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, lotus seeds, dried flower petals or other material. Chinese people traditionally eat the moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Moon Festival. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 18.

China now has more than 10,000 moon-cake producers nationwide, which turned out nearly 200,000 tons of moon cakes, registering a sales volume of 10 billion yuan (about 1.23 billion US dollars).

"In the past years, there was a trend in the industry for the price of moon-cakes to become higher and higher because of over-packing and product tie-ins," said Wang Yao, deputy secretary-general of the China General Chamber of Commerce.

In 2003, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a box of moon cakes that was attached to a flat had a listed price of 310,000 yuan ( 37,500 US dollars). In the same period in 2004, a box of moon cakes containing a piece of pure gold Buddha posted a price of 180,000 yuan.

Though exorbitantly priced moon cakes are but a very small portion of the overall market, they nonetheless have a pernicious influence and have caused a strong reaction from society, said Wang.

To curb the trend, The State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) , the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, and the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Check and Quarantine, jointly posted a notice early this month to warn companies to stop the selling of moon cakes with "sky-high prices."

The joint notice dictated that moon cake price-setting must follow the principles of fairness, legality, honesty and commensurate quality, saying relevant government departments will treat the issue seriously to help conserve resources, protect the environment and building a harmonious society.

After the notice, associations engaged in moon-cake making and selling, like the China General Chamber of Commerce, the China Cuisine Association and the China Restaurant Association jointly released a written proposal, asking companies to adopt environment-friendly and suitable packing on moon cakes and pay more attention to improve the quality of the food.

Source: Xinhua