Fruit of labour fading away in Yau Ma Tei

Amid declining business and financial hardship, Yau Ma Tei's landmark fruit market stalls are still keeping their produce at affordable prices through friendly competition.

'We are keeping the fruit supply from being monopolised - without us, your fruit will get very expensive,' said Cheung Chi-cheung, a second-generation fruit seller and vice-chairman of the Kowloon Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association.

But business is difficult and Cheung said it was getting harder to survive.

The area around Shek Lung Street in Yau Ma Tei was a bulk wet market from early last century, selling fish, eggs, poultry, vegetables and fruit to most places in the Kowloon area. It started off with about 20 stalls, but there were 300 in its heyday in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the fish and poultry merchants and vegetable stalls had moved elsewhere and the area became known as a fruit market. Now there are still about 200 fruit merchants, importing from all around the world to cater for Hong Kong's fruit retail outlets.

The fruit market was one of many old ways of life in Hong Kong which were fading away, said Simon Go Man-ching, project director and curator at heritage group Hulu Culture, which has been organising events to promote the culture and trade of Yau Ma Tei.

'Whether it's the fruit market or shops selling traditional Chinese wedding necessities like handmade bride's dresses, they are all fast disappearing,' Go said.