Hong Kong residents are facing a shortage of fresh food — and fast-rising prices for what they can find in stock — as disease prevention measures in mainland China leave truck drivers responsible for ferrying supplies unable to re-enter the territory.
Supplies of fresh produce have dropped as much as 70 percent since Saturday after some drivers tested positive for COVID-19, and subsequent testing and isolation measures caused delays to deliveries, Chamber of Hong Kong Logistics Industry vice chairman Chan Fu-chuen (陳富泉) said.
The shortage is particularly acute for vegetables and fresh fish, with Hong Kong relying on mainland China for more than 90 percent of its needs.
Photo: Reuters
Average prices of those goods have spiked about 30 percent, while some products that spoil easily, such as pea sprouts, have seen prices double, said Hong Kong Food Council chairman Thomas Ng (吳永恩), a fresh produce supplier.
“There’s plenty of supplies, but they’re stuck at the border,” Ng said. “The logistics chain has broken.”
Supermarket shelves across the territory were bare yesterday, with only more expensive vegetables imported from overseas remaining.
Concerns about an extended shortage have also prompted shoppers to buy in bulk, worsening the situation.
The panic buying is reminiscent of the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and comes during a traditionally tight period for food items. Demand peaks during the Lunar New Year holiday and prices usually rise as supply struggles to keep up.
The flow of cross-border vehicles has gradually returned to normal and supply of chilled pork, poultry and eggs is generally stable, a Hong Kong government spokesperson said in a statement yesterday.
The volume of vegetables that arrived on the wholesale market on Monday night was one-third of the previous day, but supply picked up in the morning.
The sudden stress on the territory’s food-supply chain comes as Chinese officials rush to prevent a resurgent outbreak in Hong Kong from spilling over into Guangdong Province.
Daily caseloads have surged past 600, straining the territory’s broader healthcare and contact-tracing infrastructure.
It is more than food supply at stake.
Hong Kong is an important transshipment hub for China’s exports and the territory also imports building materials, furniture and home appliances from the mainland, Lok Ma Chau China-Hong Kong Freight Association chairman Stanley Chiang (蔣志偉) said.
An extended bottleneck at the border would risk further hurting Hong Kong’s economy, which has taken a hit from increasingly strict restrictions aimed at quelling a new wave of COVID-19 infections.
Higher grocery and consumer good costs would also have an outsized impact on its poor, with almost one-quarter of the territory’s residents living in poverty.
“The impact could be disastrous if restrictions keep going tougher,” Chiang said.
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