The New Hong Kong Farmers
Hong Kong farms may be few and far between, but a new group of farmers are rising up to revive our city’s agrarian past. Grace Tsoi gets up close and personal with the entrepreneurial agriculturalists who are looking to introduce a little local flavor to your dinner plates. Photos by Cyrus Wong.
In a tiny city like Hong Kong, our precious land is more often thought of in terms of how many apartment blocks can be built on it, rather than how it might be able to feed us. Increasingly, however, people are starting to till the fields once more. Proper, working farms have been set up that produce organic crops with a low carbon footprint. From rice to guavas and strawberries to leafy greens, these entrepreneurial ecological heroes are bringing back the Hong Kong farm.
Going green
Two vegetable farmers take very different approaches to make their dreams of turning organic farming into a viable business a reality.
Wong Ling is one of the pioneers of organic farming in Hong Kong, having opened 616 Farm in Pat Heung in 1999. When he first dabbled in organic farming, he had no idea that the venture had such potential. “No one believed that customers would pay so much for organic vegetables—traditional farmers could not accept that someone would pay more than $20 for a catty of lettuce or tung choi,” says Wong. “Even now, I still can’t quite believe it. But yes, such customers do exist.” A former insurance agent, Wong takes pride in his business acumen and is determined to do the impossible: turn local agriculture into a real money-maker.
In order to run a sustainable operation, a farmer has to guarantee a steady supply during different times of the year. “It is not difficult to get harvests in winter, but a farm’s success very much depends on whether it can produce a harvest in summer,” explains Wong. Hongkongers are picky eaters, and they often demand certain vegetables that are not in season during summer months—winter vegetable choi sum, for instance, is the most popular. But it is difficult to grow choi sum in the summer because it attracts too many pests and the weather is too hot.
So Wong scratched his head and tried to think of ways to grow quality choi sum in the hot summer months. He came up with the idea of using protective netting to shield vulnerable choi sum seedlings from rain and strong winds. Over three years, he has created a few designs. “I’ve been waiting for a powerful typhoon for years to test out my netting,” he adds. “Each set only costs 3,000 RMB—I think we should introduce this equipment to the southern China region.” Typhoon Vicente’s recent visit proved that the netting is able to withstand strong winds—and Wong’s choi sum, unlike many other farmers’ crops, managed to survive the storm.
While Wong attempts to grow local vegetables through unconventional means, Ng Ping-leung from Zen Organic Farm has tried to carve out a niche for himself by prioritizing unique, foreign vegetables.