Vietnam’s mooncakes a sweet way to grease wheels of commerce FEATURE 09/22/2010

Vietnam’s mooncakes a sweet way to grease wheels of commerce

FEATURE

09/22/2010
HANOI — Vietnam’s appetite for mooncakes is rising as adults use the annual treats, traditionally enjoyed by children, to grease the wheels of commerce.

Mooncakes are a sweet, round delicacy given to youngsters and offered to ancestors during Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Wednesday.

But in Vietnam’s rapidly developing economy they have taken on increased importance for grown-ups who use gifts of mooncakes to build business relationships.

Most of the cakes sell for about one dollar but others, sometimes elaborately packaged and

made with expensive ingredients like birds nest or crayfish, can retail for almost two million dong ($101).

That is almost three times the official minimum monthly wage for civil servants.

“Those are for the rich, and for bosses,” Nguyen Thi Hoai, 42, who makes her living collecting used paper products, said outside one of the many temporary mooncake shops which have opened around Hanoi..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100922com5.html