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Vivienne Chow

Hongkongers' infatuation with Japanese cuisine has helped the city overtake the United States to become the world's biggest importer of food from Japan.
But the total value of imported products like sashimi toro - the fatty belly meat of  tuna - and swordfish  is not even close to  that of pig skin.
Trade statistics  provided by Japan's  consulate show  the total value of agricultural, forestry and fisheries products that Japan exported to Hong Kong last year was HK$5.2 billion, accounting for 18.4 per cent of the total amount of exports in the same category, earning top place.
The US imported HK$4.7 billion worth of these products last year, coming second on the list. Third and fourth places were taken by South Korea's HK$3.9 billion and  the mainland's HK$3.7 billion.
In a breakdown of the top 10 agricultural, forestry and fisheries products that Hong Kong imports, dried sea cucumbers topped the list, valued at HK$1 billion. Adductors of shellfish came second with HK$489 million and abalone was third with HK$357 million.
But there was no sign of sashimi in the top 10. A total of HK$162 million worth of pig skin, however, was imported to Hong Kong, claiming the No5 spot.
Jacqueline Ho Lai-sze, operations director of Super Star Seafood Restaurant, said Japanese pig skin was different from the mainland variety  common in local dishes. Instead, Japanese pig skin was frequently used in Japanese cuisine, and a lot of the  imported products would be resold to the rest of the world, she said.
Yoshie Ute, the economic vice-consul at Japan's consulate, believed that Hong Kong people had a higher spending power on average as out of the top 10 list, 50 to 60 per cent of the fisheries products such as abalone were not for daily consumption.
Ms Ute said a total of HK$305 million worth of wheat was imported, the fourth-most-imported item,  because a lot of quality local bakeries liked to use flour from Japanese wheat to bake bread. The value of sashimi imports, mainly tuna and swordfish, was about HK$43 million,  she said.
'Hong Kong people have great confidence in Japanese food, believing that it has high quality, is safe and delicious,' Ms Ute said.
Supermarket chain stores said  demand for Japanese food had increased. ParknShop said its stores  had nearly 2,400 types of Japanese food products  and  it also saw double-digit growth in  sales  in the past year. Wellcome said Japanese snacks were particularly popular.
Richard Poon Kuen-fai, managing director of On Kee Dry Seafood, said the best  abalone, dried scallops and sea cucumbers came from Japan. 'Most of the stock is shipped to Hong Kong before it was sold elsewhere around the world,' he said.



Hong Kong biggest importer of Japanese food products