Two weeks before the Mid-Autumn Festival, there was a long queue in front of a Haagen-Dazs store in Beijing's Chaoyang district. People were waiting to exchange their coupons for ice cream moon cakes.

Several scalpers stood nearby, asking passersby whether they'd like to cash in their coupons instead of getting the mooncakes.

"I can give you 130 yuan ($20.54) for the coupon," one scalper told the Global Times, pointing to a coupon with a face value of 238 yuan. "You won't be able to get this price in a few days, as the festival is near," he said.

Moon cake and crab coupons are popular gifts ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on September 30 this year. They are often given away as gifts or benefits by employers, clients and friends. But certain abuses have emerged, and efforts are underway to regulate the coupon market.

Growing market

With the festival approaching, online purchases of moon cake coupons have risen sharply.

Taobao.com, China's largest e-commerce website, said that its sales revenue from moon cakes and moon cake coupons between September 3 and 9 this year was over 35 million yuan, a 200 percent year-on-year increase. On September 3 alone, the sales volume of moon cake coupons reached a record high of 660,000 yuan, the company said.

Eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a tradition in China, even though nowadays many people do not like their sweet flavor and high calorie count.

The output and sales revenue of moon cakes are expected to reach 280,000 tons and 16 billion yuan in 2012, up from 250,000 tons and 15 billion yuan in 2011, according to Zhu Nianlin, president of the China Association of Bakery & Confectionery Industry.

The huge market has attracted food companies, high-end restaurants and bakeries to join in the competition, which started as early as July this year.

"Moon cakes are seasonal food, and will only keep for several months. So manufacturers prefer to sell coupons as they can get the money first, and then prepare the ingredients and the packaging for the moon cakes," said Yu Jianzhong at Wuhan Style Bakery Management Consulting Co.

"In this way, manufacturers can prevent oversupply and maintain high profits," he said, noting that the average gross profit margin for moon cake manufacturers is 70 percent.

After-sale problems

The coupons offer convenience for consumers, but they also bring some problems.

Many food producers set an expiration date on the coupons, and customers must exchange them for products before the date. For instance, on the Haagen-Dazs coupons, there is a clause saying that customers must get the moon cakes before September 27.

The local authorities in Shanghai launched a campaign in August to eliminate unfair clauses on more than 9 million moon cake coupons, such as "the firm has the right of final interpretation for the use of the coupon."

Such clauses have hurt consumers' rights, and people should be allowed to negotiate with companies for some compensation if the coupons expire, according to the Shanghai Administration for Industry & Commerce.

"Consumers in Shanghai can still get moon cakes from a designated pickup point after the expiration date printed on the coupons," Haagen-Dazs said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times, without offering details for other cities in the country.

"Coupon issuers like Haagen-Dazs should delete the unfair clauses, which were set by companies without negotiation with consumers," said Qiu Baochang, president of the legal panel at the China Consumers' Association.

"More local authorities should follow Shanghai's measures to strengthen regulation of the coupon market and protect the rights of consumers," he told the Global Times.

Counterfeit goods

The coupon market for Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, a luxurious seasonal delicacy, is even more chaotic.

This year's harvest of Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs started from Saturday (September 22) and the crabs are now available in the market. But coupon sales have been going on for nearly two months, with prices ranging from 120 yuan to 5,000 yuan.

Almost all vendors claim their crabs are genuine, but experts said the number of coupons available on the market is greater than the total output of the hairy crabs.

This year's crab output is expected to be 2,300-2,500 tons, a little higher than last year. But the price will not decrease, as farmers' production costs rose 5-10 percent  from last year, said Yang Weilong, head of the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Crab Association.

Consumers of low-priced crab coupons face two risks, Yang said: one is the crabs might not have been produced in Yangcheng Lake; the other is that their weight might be lower than claimed on the coupon. According to the association's standards, crabs that weigh less than 100 grams cannot be marked as Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs.

"The crabs' status is equal to Kweichow Moutai. Many people buy coupons for them as gifts, and receivers are not likely to weigh the crabs one by one. So it leaves room for counterfeiters," said Li Mingli, manager of Beijing Fang Yuan Brand Marketing Agency.

A grey chain

The popularity of coupons has also created a market in which coupons are resold for cash by scalpers instead of being exchanged for products.

"I can give you 60 percent of the face value for Haagen-Dazs and Starbucks moon cake coupons, and 50 percent of the face value for Holiland moon cake coupons," a man surnamed Liu told the Global Times.

Liu works as a deal negotiator together with other scaplers who close the deal seperately. They often wander around subway stations to attract more people and avoid inspections.

Firms sometimes buy large quantities of coupons from manufacturers at 60 to 70 percent of their face value, and then these coupons are given away as gifts to employees or clients.

Some of the receivers then sell the coupons to scalpers at 40 to 60 percent of their face value, and finally scalpers sell the coupons back to manufacturers at 40 to 50 percent of their face value. In this way, manufacturers can make back 20 percent of the coupons' face value without producing anything, Beijing  Morning Post reported.

Yu attributes the phenomenon to the high profitability of moon cakes and China's gift-giving tradition.

"Both manufacturers and scalpers gain from the coupon circulation. Only consumers get hurt," he said.