Hopia, Wine, and Suwerte: Pinoy Traditions Ignite Chinese New Year Sales Surge in Sari-Sari Stores

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Is your pantry ready for the Fire Horse? Packworks data shows that Filipinos aren’t just buying groceries—they’re “investing” in prosperity. See why Hopia and Chinese wine are flying off sari-sari store shelves this week.

PRESS RELEASE

Pinoy traditions drive sari-sari store sales surge during Chinese New Year – Packworks 

Hopia, Chinese wine, and noodles among top-selling items

Manila, Philippines — As Chinese New Year approaches, Filipinos are turning cultural traditions and ‘suwerte’ (luck) into a shopping list, fueling a sales surge in sari-sari stores nationwide as families prepare to welcome prosperity for the year ahead.

Filipino tech startup Packworks, through its business intelligence tool Sari IQ, analyzed over a million monthly transactions across its network of 300,000 stores over a three-year period. The study compared sales trends for holiday-related items two weeks before and after Chinese New Year from 2023 to 2025. The data reveals that items linked to abundance and luck, such as hopia, Chinese wine, and Asian noodles, posted sales increases, reflecting how Filipino beliefs influence consumption during the occasion.

Hopia, a round pastry of Chinese origin symbolizing togetherness and good fortune, steadily grew sales from 2023 to 2025. Its median gross merchandise value (GMV) rose 20% in 2025, up from 14% increase in 2023. The Visayas regions led the sales growth. Central Visayas (Region VII) saw a massive 240% spike in sales and a 200% increase in transactions in 2025. This popularity reflects the region’s enduring Chinese cultural influence, particularly in Western and Central Visayas, hubs home to significant Chinese-Filipino communities such as Iloilo, which is home to approximately 14,000 Chinese-Filipinos.

Meanwhile, Chinese wine, often linked with holiday toasts and wishes for prosperity, saw its median GMV leap 36% in 2025, from a mere 3% in 2023. Growth was seen across most regions, with Central Luzon (Region III) maintaining a consistent 100% sales increase each year, along with Eastern Visayas, showing steadily rising growth from 72% in 2023, and highest surge of 107% in 2024 and 115% in 2025. This trend highlights the intersection of Chinese influence and the local tradition of ‘tagay’ (communal drinking). 

Asian noodles, a staple symbolizing long life, saw a 10% sales increase in 2025, rebounding from a 3% decline the previous year. SOCCSKSARGEN (Region XII) recorded the highest sales in 2025 with 25% increase, likely driven by a 36% rise in stores selling the product, the highest among all regions. Western Visayas had the largest jump in transactions at 25%, reflecting the region’s Chinese culinary influences and its growing community of Chinese-Filipinos. Meanwhile, Central Luzon and Eastern Visayas continued to sustain sales growth over the three-year period, with Central Luzon recording 27% in 2023, 15% in 2024, and 17% in 2025, and Eastern Visayas showing  steady although gradually decreasing growth at 28%, 18%, and 9%. These trends reflect steady top-up purchases of affordable and culturally symbolic items in sari-sari stores in these regions. 

Packworks Chief Data Officer Andoy Montiel said these patterns reflect how Filipinos weave tradition into purchasing decisions.

“Our historical data underscores how deeply traditional beliefs and cultural influences are embedded in the Filipino psyche, proving that commerce is inseparable from culture. The sales trends show that for the average Filipino, Chinese New Year isn’t just a holiday, but a window for ‘investing’ in prosperity. These cultural nuances are mirrored in the sari-sari store ecosystem, proving that in our local market, heritage often leads the hand that shops,” Montiel said.

The Filipinos’ “prosperity basket” also extends to kitchen essentials used for holiday feasts. Soy sauce, a staple introduced in Chinese cuisine, saw sales rise 9% in 2025, while seasoning granules and MSG grew by 7%. Cooking oil also saw around a 13% increase in both sales and transactions. Furthermore, sweet products like chocolates and sugar, symbolizing a “sweet” year ahead, experienced notable growth. Chocolates saw a 36% boost in sales in 2025, while sugar maintained a strong presence following a massive 47% spike in 2024.

“Our latest insights prove that to stay relevant, brands and FMCGs must move beyond passive stocking and traditional distribution toward a hyper-localized, insight-led strategy. By aligning product availability with these deeply ingrained cultural cues, brands can capture the latent demand that often goes unseen in modern trade, effectively turning cultural nuances into a competitive advantage at the grassroots level,” Packworks Co-founder and Chief Platform Officer Hubert Yap said. 

Packworks expects a 10% GMV growth and a 4% increase in transactions for this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations, as more Filipinos are buying the same product per transaction, particularly during the festive occasion.

For more info about Sari IQ and to uncover more in-depth data trends in sari-sari stores, you may visit http://packworks.io/ or Packworks’ Facebook page to learn more.

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OTHER KEY INFO

  • Packworks was born in 2018 out of a passion project by founders Bing Tan, Ibba Bernardo, and Hubert Yap, who started as motorbike buddies delivering solar panels to provinces and far-flung places across the country. During their excursions, they saw firsthand the challenges brought by limited access for sari-sari store owners and embarked on developing an application for small store businesses to have a one-app stop for all their needs. 
  • Launched as a solution for multinational companies with only a handful of sari-sari store partners, Packworks has rapidly expanded as a B2B platform that enables growth and success throughout all stakeholders in the supply chain ecosystem, from small sari-sari store owners to wholesalers, distributors, and renowned FMCG companies and brands. With about 75% of sari-sari stores owned by women, Packworks also works to empower female entrepreneurs.

Benefits

  • Cultural Relevance: Aligns retail offerings with deeply ingrained Filipino-Chinese traditions.
  • Economic Boost: Provides a projected 10% GMV growth for small sari-sari store owners during the festive season.
  • Hyper-Localized Insights: Uses Sari IQ to track specific regional preferences, such as the 240% Hopia surge in Central Visayas.
  • Inventory Optimization: Helps store owners stock the right “prosperity” items (noodles, oil, sweets) before the peak.
  • FMCG Precision: Enables big brands to move away from “passive stocking” to strategic, data-led distribution.
  • Support for Women Entrepreneurs: Empowers the 75% of sari-sari store owners who are women through digital business tools.
  • Community Connection: Strengthens the role of the sari-sari store as a cultural hub for local celebrations.
  • Inclusive Tech: Offers low-bandwidth, high-impact business solutions for stores in far-flung provinces.
  • Financial Literacy: Encourages store owners to view seasonal trends as opportunities for “investing” in their business growth.
  • Digital Transformation: Bridges the gap between traditional “neighborhood” trade and modern business intelligence.

Insights

  • The “Prosperity Basket” Concept: Consumers view holiday shopping as a symbolic act—buying sweets for a “sweet year” and noodles for “long life.”
  • Regional Cultural Hubs: The high concentration of Chinese-Filipinos in Iloilo directly correlates with the massive sales spikes in the Visayas.
  • The “Tagay” Intersection: The growth in Chinese wine sales reflects a unique blend of Chinese festive traditions and the Filipino custom of communal drinking.
  • Resilience of Staples: Even basic kitchen essentials like soy sauce (+9%) and cooking oil (+13%) see a “holiday lift” as families prepare feasts.
  • Rebound of Tradition: After a slight decline in 2024, Asian noodles saw a 10% rebound in 2025, signaling a return to traditional symbolic meals.
  • Sweets for Harmony: The 36% boost in chocolate sales highlights the belief that starting the year “sweet” ensures a harmonious 12 months.
  • Efficiency Gains: Stores using Packworks’ AI-driven tools saw a 46% increase in daily GMV, proving that tech-enabled tradition pays off.
  • High-Volume Transactions: Filipinos are buying more items per transaction during CNY, moving from “top-up” shopping to “festive stocking.”
  • Grassroots Competitive Advantage: Brands that understand these “cultural cues” can find latent demand that modern supermarkets often miss.
  • Commerce is Culture: As CDO Andoy Montiel notes, in the Philippines, heritage is the primary driver of the shopping hand.

Conclusion

As the Philippines welcomes the Year of the Fire Horse, Packworks’ data highlights a fascinating truth: the sari-sari store remains the beating heart of Filipino cultural expression. By analyzing over a million transactions, Sari IQ has shown that “suwerte” is a powerful economic engine. Whether it’s a box of hopia in Iloilo or a bottle of Chinese wine in Central Luzon, the traditions of the Lunar New Year are driving a significant retail surge. For brands and store owners alike, the message is clear: understanding the spirit of the season is the best way to ensure a prosperous bottom line.

ABOUT PACKWORKS

Packworks is a startup company that provides a business-to-business (B2B) platform that is easy to use, has low bandwidth, and has a light footprint that will allow sari-sari store owners to become more efficient in managing their business. Founded in 2018 and started as a solution for multinational companies in the Philippines to connect with neighborhood stores, the platform has now transformed into a way out of poverty for the millions of sari-sari store owners across the Philippines. Packworks empowers the sari-sari stores through scalable and accessible technology, with its team composed of dedicated developers, programmers, and technicians that work to put the power back into the hands of the people at the heart of Filipino communities by providing them with digital opportunities previously only available to big companies. By bringing technology-based solutions to one million Filipino sari-sari stores, Packworks is driving toward a more progressive, connected, and inclusive Philippines.

Key Phrases

  • Packworks Chinese New Year sales surge
  • Sari IQ prosperity basket trends
  • Sari-sari store hopia sales 2026
  • Filipino traditions driving retail growth
  • Chinese wine sales Central Luzon
  • Asian noodles long life symbol sales
  • Packworks B2B platform Philippines
  • Hyper-localized FMCG strategy Philippines
  • Regional sales spikes Chinese New Year
  • Sari-sari store digital transformation

Best Hashtags

#Packworks #SariIQ #ChineseNew Year2026 #SariSariStore #ProsperityBasket #HopiaSurge #Suwerte2026 #PinoyTradition #FMCGInsights #YearOfTheFireHorse

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute endorsement of any specific technologies or methodologies and financial advice or endorsement of any specific products or services.

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