AbacusHong Kong’s food price inflation may have only just begun
- Price rises aren’t wholly the fault of supermarkets. Covid-19 has created problems with shipping that are only now being felt by the consumer
- Coupled with crop shortages and natural disasters, this suggests things are about to get expensive for all Asian food importers, from Japan to Singapore
HAVING A WINE AND A MOAN
I was having a quiet Sunday afternoon refreshment with a neighbour of mine who is starting to enjoy his retirement and we got onto the subject of food prices. Sadly, he wasn’t joking when he said: “I don’t think we can afford to stay here much longer unless I get another job; without a steady income, it is just getting too expensive.”
Unlike some other friends of mine, he chose not to sell up on his retirement and leave after having spent over half his life here. Now he finds himself busier than ever, fixing up the house and doing all those odd jobs his wife had been bugging him to do for years.
Like me, he enjoys cooking at home, and we both generally rely on local Lantau shopping with the usual supermarkets, a wet market and a variety of nice small shops that bake fresh bread, sell veggies, imported frozen meat and wine.
His comment resonated. I too have noticed how prices have been going up – particularly for frozen chicken – in all the local shops, including the wet market, so I decided to get out some old till receipts and get an idea of what the price rises actually look like.