Bidders for dry-goods stalls at Hong Kong Lunar New Year fair cautious amid economic uncertainty
After record-breaking prices set earlier, sellers of dry goods take advantage of the gloomy economic outlook to pick up some bargains
Dry-goods traders spooked by economic gloom bid cautiously yesterday for stalls at the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park.
The auction for fast food and wet goods pitches two days ago attracted record winning bids but yesterday was a more conservative affair.
But traders were still keen to land stalls in prime spots. Wo Hing Loong Food Company paid HK$74,200 for a large stall in the middle of the park, nearly double the opening price. A similar stall fetched HK$86,000 last year.
Cat Lau Chi-wing, director of Wo Hing Loong, which planned to sell Chinese sweets, said he expected the outcome of the fair would only be “average”.
“The last three days of the coming fair will be on weekends. Experience shows this is not good because people will visit the fair later. It’s better if the first three days of the fair coincide with holidays,” Lau said.
“Also, the general retail environment is not very good. So people may spend less. I expect prices for the stalls will drop 10 to 20 per cent this year.”