Chinese-style goods helping bakery sector grow

The report added that China's bakery and pastry industry has recovered rapidly ever since China lifted most COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions at the start of this year.

In the first half of this year, the total income of enterprises above the designated size, generating more than 20 million yuan in revenue annually, in the industry reached 55 billion yuan, up by 5.5 percent year-on-year.

"Their total revenue stood at 3 billion yuan, up by 58 percent from the same period of last year," said the report. "The jump in this year's revenue is largely due to a relatively low total reported last year amid the pandemic."

The report said that operating costs of bakery and pastry businesses remain at a high level and the consumer market is relatively weak.

"With a series of supportive policies in the second half of this year, the development of the industry is expected to trend high, bringing its total production, sales and revenue to pre-pandemic levels," it said.

Ke Qingyi, a white-collar worker in Beijing, used to order a box of Cantonese mooncakes online to send to her family in Hefei, Anhui province, as a gift for the Mid-Autumn Festival. "But this year, I decided to buy some pastries at the Luxihe Pastry store near my apartment," she said. Luxihe Pastry, a bakery chain founded in Jiangxi province, sells a variety of Chinese-style baked goods.

"I quite like its taosu (Chinese shortbread cookie), its cake with cream cheese filling and its mini cream puffs," she said. "Compared to traditional mooncakes, these baked goods are less heavy but tasty and sweet enough. They also cost less and there are no brick-and-mortar stores selling them in my hometown. I think those are the best things to share with my family during the festival."