Vendors at Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year fair predict drop in business amid retail woes
Twelve stalls fail to get bids and one insider estimates prices have fallen to lowest level in 17 years
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department held the three-day auction earlier this week for 395 stalls at the Victoria Park fair scheduled to run from January 23 to 29 next year.
One fast food stall, measuring 215 sq ft, fetched HK$182,000 (US$23,420), down by 17 per cent on the HK$220,000 paid last year. A wet goods stall, typically used to sell flowers, attracted a top bid of HK$75,000, down by 11 per cent over the HK$84,000 paid in 2023.
Cat Lau, managing director of Wo Hing Loong Food Company, said the hammer prices were the lowest he had seen in his 17 years of involvement in the fair. He paid HK$22,500 and HK$36,000 for two regular-sized stalls this year.
“Many vendors I know are not running a stall because it is likely to make a loss,” he said. “If there was a profit margin to be had, many would be fighting to run a stall.”
Lau, whose company specialises in traditional snacks such as candied roasted peanuts and “dragon’s beard” sweets, said he expected a 20 per cent drop in business compared with last year. To help struggling businesses, the government should step in to subsidise the fair’s electricity and bamboo scaffolding costs, he said.