Jumpstart Magazine July/August 2014 | Page 36

34 JUMPSTART JUMPSTART EMERGING FOOD MARKETS By Sharon Maloney If you had asked any visiting tourist a few years ago what Hong Kong’s markets were like, chances were most replies probably went something like ‘the mouthplace to Hell’ or ‘Satan’s Zoo!’. They wouldn’t have been far wrong. Hong Kong’s ubiquitous, traditional wet markets are no place for the squeamish, with the violence and dirt and noise that accompanies butchers and fishmongers and anyone else plying their trade with a cleaver. Yet, despite sharing a daily habit of buying fresh food, Hong Kong’s markets have long been behind European, Australian and American counterparts in terms of offering customers more than the most basic of meat and veg. In fact, a few years ago, you would have been very hard pressed to find something more genteel, offering high-end, quality, gourmet foods and beverages together with handmade arts and crafts, similar to those found in farmers’ and artisan markets abroad. This has recently begun to change for the better as creative entrepreneurs like Janice Leung Hayes (the brains and founder of Island East Markets), Sudha and Anasua (founders of Hidden Truffles), Greg Hunt (founder and market organiser of Sai Kung Market) and Elisa Dal Farra (of Italian Chamber of Commerce Italian Market) taking up the mantle and beginning to flourish. In addition to offering the public new and exciting products, they are helping to provide a much-needed platform, and guidance, for start-up and fledgling businesses to showcase their products and ideas to a receptive audience. Janice explains, “I love buying from local producers and spending weekends exploring them. That sort of atmosphere just didn’t really exist in HK, so instead of whining, I decided I would do something about it.” Her idea for the market grew as she discovered that the people were creative but had no outlet. “We think of Hong Kong as a malloriented, chain- store city, but the market provides a platform for people doing all sorts of unique things, and encourages them to have a go and try out how feasible their business is.” For Sudha and Anasua, both share a common passion for trying out products and services that are lesser-known but have a higher artisanal quotient. They agree that “Hong Kong is a city that celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship and has many such high quality small businesses that cater to a wide range of products and services. However, most businesses rely solely on wordof-mouth marketing to advertise themselves to their target audience.” From a customer’s perspective they realized that it is very difficult to keep track of all these businesses through their individual websites and Facebook pages, and thus the idea of Hidden Truffles was born. Sai Kung Market came about from Greg’s personal experience of having to search for somewhere to sell his own gourmet foods. After having no luck, he decided to start a small market as an outlet for his goods, wanting the market to be locally driven with a community spirit, eco-friendly and fun. “My original idea was for 20 vendors. The first one had over 40 and December already has over 80 bookings.” For foreign companies hoping to launch in Hong Kong, the Italian Market provides a much needed spring board for SMEs to launch their products onto the local scene. Elisa explains the need for the market to give a bird’s eye view to Italian companies trying to understand the complexities of the local population. The biggest challenges for the In addition to offering the public new and exciting products, they are helping to provide a much-needed platform, and guidance, for startup and fledgling businesses to showcase their products and ideas to a receptive audience. markets and bazaars range from the setting up process and obtaining licensing from the Food and Environmental Health Department to getting people in the market. As Janice puts so succintly, “the licensing experience is gruelling. I have experienced inconsistencies in final decision-making, lack of transparency and general incompetence in all levels of the FEHD. Not to mention that the rules and application structure are archaic and not applicable to modern life!” She goes on to say that what Hong Kong does not lack are food entrepreneurs with great ideas, but “as hardy as entrepreneurs are, we need some structural facilitation: landlords that care about the quality and type of business that goes on in their properties, not only how much rent they can afford; better, more up to date, and easier licensing for food startups in order to create a more vibrant cottage industry of locally made products.” Greg echoes the same sentiment and maintains that the biggest challenge for “any market is getting people through the door; anyone that tells you something different is not being honest with themselves. We are in the retail business just like a department store.” And what is missing from the local scene? Sudha and Anasua say that while Hong Kong has a thriving food industry, they feel that there is still opportunity for a lot more. “Apart from the four or five main cuisines in Hong Kong, there is not too much in terms of variety and quality on offer as there is in other financial capitals of the world, such as Ethiopian cuisine. The concept of food trucks is something that we feel will be a very welcome addition to the Hong Kong food industry.” Janice also feels there is room for the food and tech worlds to collaborate more. “Usually food people are the ones initiating food tech, which is silly, because most food people don’t know anything about tech, and tech people don’t know much about food- if we had a platform to work together we could do great things!” Hong Kong is emerging from its cocoon of the mall-driven shopping habit as people look for uniqueness and quality, and while the ground is fertile for all to bloom, Hong Kong’s bureaucracy in legal areas needs to be simplified and made transparent before true growth can be achieved. What is heartening and inspiring is the entrepreneurial s