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Ambrose Li

The highest bid for a food stall at Hong Kong’s largest Lunar New Year fair next January has dropped by 17 per cent compared with last year, with vendors citing less intense competition due to the weaker economy.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on Tuesday conducted an auction for four food stands and 175 wet goods stalls at the fair in Victoria Park, which is scheduled for January 23 to 29 next year.
Two of the four food stalls sold for base prices of HK$120,470 (US$15,500). All four stalls measured 20 square metres each and are located near the park’s entrances.
This year’s highest bid for a food stall stood at HK$182,000, a 17 per cent drop from last year’s HK$220,000.
Food vendor Jason Ng, who won the bid for the most expensive food stall, said the space cost about 10 per cent less than what he paid for last year.
“There used to be a dozen other bidders in the past. There were only one or two others this year,” Ng said, attributing the lower participation to the pessimistic views of vendors as business was “very difficult” at the start of the year.
Ng estimated that it would cost around HK$500,000 for him to run the stall.
His stall will be selling snacks such as cuttlefish, chicken cartilage, Japanese omelette tamagoyaki and pork skewers, with prices kept similar to last year at about HK$40 for an item or about HK$100 for three.
Ng expressed uncertainty about whether he would make a profit at the fair in January, saying that it would depend on the weather, but he hoped his participation at the fair could help bring business to his shop on Temple Street in the future.
He added that his plan to attract customers was to introduce new sauces made of sea urchin or salted egg yolk to his Japanese omelette.
Ng also said that he was considering hiring muscular salesmen, instead of having women dressed in maid costumes to do sales, which was a tactic he employed previously.

Ben Lau, a plum blossom vendor, secured a wet goods stall at HK$8,000, down from last year’s HK$20,000. He attributed the price drop to the lukewarm competition this year.
Lau added that the cost of running the stall would reach HK$100,000, though he was not optimistic about sales this year.
Thus, his strategy was to sell smaller plants, around three to four feet tall, rather than the larger six to seven-foot specimens, he said.
“Business is definitely worse. Those who buy large peach blossoms have a sizeable home and are middle class, but they have now emigrated,” said Lau, who has participated in the fair for about a decade.
Eleven of 175 wet goods stalls, typically selling flowers, went as low as the auction base price of HK$6,530, with the most expensive stall having a hammer price of more than HK$75,000.
The bidder was a flower vendor who was surnamed Wong. He said he had always had the same stall for over two decades to attract loyal customers. This year, he spent HK$5,000 more on the bid.
He would be spending over HK$100,000 in cost overall to run his stall, selling imported flowers from the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Japan.
He was not worried about his business, saying that customers on Hong Kong Island were generally more generous spenders who would typically fork out HK$2,000 to HK$3,000 at his stall.
Yeung Siu-lung, dubbed “King of Orchids” by local media, has been selling at the fair since 1997. He said he was looking to secure about 10 different stalls so that customers could make purchases from him “at all corners of the fair”.
Yeung said that the competition was not as fierce as last year because the economy was weak. He said he grew his own orchids in greenhouses in Hong Kong, and would consider the job done when he finished selling all of his flowers that ranged between HK$100 and HK$4,800.
Hui So-hing, superintendent from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, said the stalls going for base prices reflected “market conditions”, while highlighting that there were also stalls that sold for higher than the initial offer.
She added that the authorities introduced 50 larger dry food stalls, each measuring 9 square metres, in response to feedback from vendors who found the 4.5 square metre stalls too small.
With the implementation of the single-use plastics ban, staff from the Environmental Protection Department were also present at the auction to tell vendors about the policies, according to Hui.
Towards the end of the auction on Tuesday, fierce bidding among potential vendors erupted into heated disputes, with expletives in Cantonese exchanged across the hall, causing temporary delays.
Auctions for 216 stalls for dry goods will be held over the next two days.


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The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department conducted an auction for stalls on Tuesday. Photo: Dickson Lee

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The crowd at the Lunar New Year fair at Victoria Park on Friday. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

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News

Hong Kong

Highest bid for prime spot at Victoria Park stood at HK$182,000, down from HK$220,000 previously


Highest bid for prime spot at Victoria Park stood at HK$182,000, down from HK$220,000 previously.


Lunar New Year

Hong Kong culture