Hong Kong fruit merchants slam ‘one-sided proposal’ to move wholesale market, saying they have not been consulted
- Vendors only found out about proposal for Yau Ma Tei landmark when Urban Renewal Authority submitted a paper to legislature last week, association chief says
- Development chief says URA study ‘very much a vision’ and that further consultation will be carried out
A merchants’ association has slammed a proposal to relocate Hong Kong’s main fruit market as part of a blueprint to overhaul two old, densely built districts, saying vendors have not been properly consulted about the plan.
Cheung Chi-cheong, vice-chairman of the Kowloon Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association, told the Post that vendors only found out about the proposal when the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) submitted a paper to the Legislative Council last Friday on revitalising parts of Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok after a four-year study.
“The URA’s idea is not feasible because retail and wholesale cannot be separated, which is why we oppose the plan,” he said on Tuesday.
“The only information we have on the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market proposal is from the single paragraph written about it in the Legco paper. We don’t know much about the plan, including how big the wholesale market will be. The proposal cannot be one-sided. We hope to come to a consensus with the government and the URA once they come to us with more concrete details.”
The URA study covers about 212 hectares (524 acres), comprising 3,350 buildings, of which about 65 per cent are at least 50 years old.