Covid-19 deals killer blow to Hong Kong food trucks, as more operators abandon scheme
- Only two of 15 food trucks still operating four years after scheme was launched with fanfare
- Operators say subsidy from government’s pandemic relief fund was ‘a drop in the bucket’
Hong Kong’s experiment with food trucks appears on the brink of collapse, generating only HK$1.21 million last year as most operators decided working was not worth their while.
The scheme kicked off with fanfare in 2017, after a competition was organised to select food vendors on wheels to add some buzz to Hong Kong’s street food scene.
After a promising start, complaints started pouring in from operators, about poor, fixed locations and other rules they said hurt their business.
From 15 trucks at the start, only one was still operating regularly at the beginning of this month. Another has been appearing mainly on weekends. The rest are either locked in car parks or no longer in operation.
The Butcher’s Club food truck was still offering its signature American beef burgers and beef rice at the West Kowloon Cultural District arts hub.
