Beyond the hearth, zongzi still the heart of holiday

Commercial offerings

In supermarkets, the competition is visible.

Retail giant Metro launched a Dragon Boat Festival campaign last month offering about 140 zongzi products, with nearly 50 of them new this year. They range from loose and bagged zongzi to paperbag souvenirs and creative gift boxes. Prices reach up to several hundred yuan. The retailer is also offering zongzi-making activities inspired by intangible cultural heritage in stores nationwide.

Some products combine traditional symbols with novelty. One popular gift box features zongzi shaped like a dragon boat with seven whole salted egg yolks inside.

In Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, an area known for its zongzi culture, traditional producers are also catering to new demands. At one established zongzi company in Youchegang town, Xiuzhou district, production began rising in March to prepare for the holiday rush.

"Every year before the festival is our busiest time," said Qiu Shaowei, the company's marketing director. The company can produce 1.5 million zongzi a day and ships orders nationwide.

This year, it invested nearly 10 million yuan to upgrade its production lines, using digital and intelligent equipment to improve efficiency and food safety. It also launched kale and oat zongzi, low-sugar, soft-centered corn zongzi and a "one soup, one zongzi" series that pairs broths with the dumplings.

Health has become a major direction for product innovation. The white paper said low-sugar, low-fat and additive-free zongzi were expected to become mainstream products. Healthy zongzi products could account for more than 40 percent of the market by 2030, it added.