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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