Hong Kong plans 80 hectare agriculture park to boost agro-business and local production

Plans by the city to set up its first agricultural park by acquiring about 80 hectares of private farmland at an estimated cost of HK$7 billion were revealed yesterday.

The park will be designed to transfer knowledge of agricultural science and agribusiness management, increase local production, rehabilitate fallow farmland and accommodate farmers who have been displaced by developments, the government announced.

While the proposal is expected to increase the annual local produce by 25 per cent to about 20,400 tonnes - equivalent to a value of about HK$200 million yearly - the cost of purchasing the land was not disclosed.

Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man said property would be acquired according to the Land Resumption Ordinance, which has a current compensation rate for farmland of HK$808 per square foot. This would bring the land cost to about HK$7 billion.

The proposal, which will now go to a three-month public consultation, does not give a timetable or specify possible locations for the park.

"This is probably the first time for the Hong Kong government to buy land for developing the agricultural industry," Ko said. "We hope [the proposal] will remove constraints like uncertain land tenure that has stopped farmers from investing in their production."

While some members of the Heung Yee Kuk rural authority welcomed the proposal, planning activists are sceptical, saying it does not deal with the city's larger issue of abandoned farmland, which amounts to a few thousand hectares.

The city's locally produced vegetables only account for 2 per cent market share and the industry contributes less than 0.1 per cent to GDP.

There is already a land rehabilitation scheme to assist farmers to identify suitable land for cultivation but the land matching process takes an average of five years, with 272 applications still on the waiting list, activists said.

Ko said the proposal - with the establishment of a fund to encourage research and to provide matching grants to entrepreneurs - would address the city's rising demand for more quality food, diversify the economy and attract young people into the industry.

Ko acknowledged that assembling the land would be a daunting task as most of the required 80 hectares - double the size of the 40-hectare art hub and making up about one-tenth of the existing active farmland - would be privately owned.

Those interested in joining the park will have to bid for entry subject to their capability to meet the production targets and technological requirements