bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Oscar Liu

Gordon Tam Chi-ho places five delicate wasabi roots carefully in pots on a vertical rack in his hi-tech indoor farm at an industrial building in Hong Kong’s Tai Po.
He checks the water quality, lighting, temperature and humidity before reminding his workers to take extra care looking after the fragile plants.
“They are equivalent to Japan’s national treasure and cannot die,” Tam, in his forties, said.
Wasabi is Japanese horseradish, which is grated to a green, pungent paste served with raw fish in sushi, sashimi, soba and rice bowls.

With Japan’s wasabi harvest slumping by three-fifths over 15 years to 1,885.5 tonnes in 2021, according to official data, Tam is on a mission to raise commercially viable horseradish in Hong Kong and Japan.
He brought the wasabi roots from Japan, as part of a planned HK$10.1 million (US$1.3 million) deal between his start-up hydroponic company, Farm66, and a Japanese conglomerate.
He has designed 44-foot containers equipped with racks and a lighting, irrigation and ventilation system to create an all-weather, controlled environment.
Japan asks Hong Kong: weigh data before curbing seafood over nuclear waste plan
“Wasabi shortages have worsened in recent years to such an alarming extent that it triggered the Japanese to look for alternatives,” he said.
He recalled how two Japanese men turned up at his vertical farm in Tai Po Industrial Estate late last year.
“I thought they were here to buy vegetables, but it turned out they were representatives of the Japanese conglomerate looking for help to increase wasabi supplies after getting to know what we do,” he said.
He co-founded Farm66 in 2013, growing lettuce, kale, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers and herbs indoors in customised shipping containers placed on vertical racks, with robotic systems to ensure the plants get the right amount of water, nutrients and light.

The Japanese company, based in Wakayama city in the Kansai region, has asked Tam to create 10 customised farming containers at US$130,000 each. It asked not be named yet, as the two sides are finalising their contract.
As many as 2,800 wasabi roots can be grown in a single container at the same time, taking nine months to harvest.
A prototype of his system would be shipped to Wakayama in July, he said.
“The company has tried to do vertical farming in an abandoned school using fluorescent lamps to grow wasabi plants, which is a far less controlled environment. We offer a system that they can use to control and monitor the habitat via a mobile phone,” Tam said.
Hong Kong could get first offshore wind farm in 2027, with power for 120,000 families
Kyoko Yamane, an associate professor of applied biological sciences at Gifu University in Honshu, Japan, told the Post that the dwindling wasabi harvest had become more dire every year, and climate change was one of the reasons.
It grows naturally in pebbles of clear-running streams in mountain rivers under cool and shady conditions.
Yamane said aside from global warming, Japan’s farmers were also ageing, and that was a factor in the declining harvests.
“Wasabi is an important economic plant with a unique presence that affects our food procurement, food culture and the environment,” Yamane said.

Hong Kong food lovers are no strangers to Japanese cuisine, or the pairing of wasabi with raw fish.
Alvin Lam Chin-cheung, 39, owner of Hirou Tsuki izakaya, a Japanese-style casual establishment serving food and drinks in San Po Kong, said the price of imported wasabi had shot up by a fifth since the middle of last year to HK$130 per root of about 150 grams to 200 grams (7 oz).
“One wasabi root can be grated to a paste for 10 servings of a sashimi platter,” he said.
If fresh wasabi could be sourced locally, it would cut shipping costs, he said.

Towards that end, farmer Tam is conducting tests at his 20,000 sq ft farm to identify the ideal conditions to grow wasabi.
He has found that the leaves grow bigger under white light, whereas the stems grow longer under a combination of red and blue light.
“Wasabi is very sensitive to changes in the environment,” he said.
He said he expected that the time needed before harvest could be shortened to nine months indoors, compared with 15 to 24 in the traditional way.
Kombucha start-up sends a message by only using fruit grown in Hong Kong
Dawn Au Ching-tung, an assistant professor in the department of food and health science at the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, said farming wasabi through hydroponics could be viable.
She thought Tam’s hydroponic cultivation experience could also be used to grow plants for traditional Chinese medicine.
“It could speed up the growing process of various rhizomes without worrying if the soil may be contaminated in the natural environment,” she said, referring to underground plant stems.


How Hong Kong can reap benefits of Beijing’s eased tax refund rules for visitors

Geopolitics high on list as Hong Kong trade body searches for new director

Hong Kong finance chief revises budget deficit to HK$80.3 billion, down 8%

HKEX posts best quarter as China’s ‘DeepSeek moment’ spurs IPOs, market rerating

Hong Kong economy

Wasabi from Hong Kong? As Japan’s harvests decline, hi-tech indoor farm tries growing pungent root in city

The wasabi roots were brought in from Japan, as part of a planned HK$10.1 million deal. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

CEO Gordon Tam shows off some of his wasabi plants. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Different light conditions affect how the plants’ stems and leaves grow. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Inside Farm66 in the Tai Po Industrial Estate. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Harvests of the popular condiment have been on the decline in Japan. Photo: Shutterstock

How Japanese cherry blossom is used in food, what its tastes like, and where in Hong Kong you can find it

Sakura roll cake at Hong Kong patisserie Kiyoka, which infuses the Japanese cherry blossom throughout the cake dough, cream filling and with garnishes. Photo: Kiyoka

Sakurayu, or cherry blossom tea. Photo: Shutterstock

Cherry blossoms preserved in salt. Photo: Shutterstock

Sakura macarons from Kiyoka. Photo: Kiyoka

Sakura spring afternoon tea set at Nina Patisserie. Photo: Nina Patisserie

The sakura chiffon cake at Nina Patisserie, in Tsuen Wan. Photo: Nina Patisserie

100 pigs at Hong Kong farm culled after 32 cases of African swine fever detected

African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs. Photo: Shutterstock

As China develops a taste for African farm produce, why ‘green lanes’ still have a long way to go

China imports more farm produce from Africa, including avocados, cashews, sesame seeds and chilli peppers, as agriculture becomes the new focus of its engagement with the continent. Photo: EPA-EFE

A man sells fruits and vegetables in a street shop, in Shanghai, China. Photo: EPA-EFE

‘To make high-quality food accessible’: how urban farmer in Hong Kong found her mission growing micro greens for top restaurants

Jessica Fong, founder of Common Farms, at the company’s indoor farm in Yau Tong, Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Jessica Fong and her brother in Vancouver, Canada, in 1993. Photo: Jessica Fong

Jessica Fong (rear) with her mother and grandmother. Photo: Jessica Fong

Jessica Fong at Common Farms’ Aberdeen facility in 2019. Photo: Jessica Fong

Fong in Florence, Italy, in 2017. Photo: Jessica Fong

Jessica Fong in 2016 when she first got her motorcycle licence. Photo: Jessica Fong

Jessica Fong at work in Common Farms’ facility in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, in 2019. Photo: Jessica Fong

Jessica Fong at Common Farms in Yau Tong. “Every day it’s such a privilege to grow food,” she says. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Bird rescues soar by 20 times over past decade at Hong Kong conservation centre, but residents warned against plucking animals from danger

Some of the birds the facility receives do not need rescuing, the group says. Photo: Dickson Lee

Inside the Wild Animal Rescue Centre at the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in the New Territories. Photo: Dickson Lee

Gary Ades, head of the fauna conservation department at the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden. Photo: Dickson Lee

Resident have been warned against trying to rescue the feathered creatures themselves. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Economy

Dwindling supplies of Japanese horseradish spark search for new ways to produce prized sushi condiment
Hydroponic farm imports wasabi roots for experiments to identify ideal conditions for cultivation


Dwindling supplies of Japanese horseradish spark search for new ways to produce prized sushi condiment.


Hong Kong society

Japan

Wasabi from Hong Kong? As Japan’s harvests decline, hi-tech indoor farm tries growing pungent root in city

Dwindling supplies of Japanese horseradish spark search for new ways to produce prized sushi condiment Hydroponic farm imports wasabi roots for experiments to identify ideal conditions for cultivation

Dwindling supplies of Japanese horseradish spark search for new ways to produce prized sushi condiment

Hydroponic farm imports wasabi roots for experiments to identify ideal conditions for cultivation