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Hong Kong culture
OpinionHong Kong Opinion
Mathias Woo
Opinion
Mathias Woo

A 5-step recipe for the revival of Hong Kong’s food sector

Instead of relying on imported labour, the city must take a proactive approach to reclaim its status as a food and drink industry pioneer

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Mathias Woo
Mathias Woo is co artistic director and executive director of Zuni Icosahedron.
Hong Kong has long celebrated its status as a “culinary paradise” – a city where East meets West across steaming bamboo baskets and sizzling skillets. Yet behind the Michelin stars and street food fame, the city’s food and drink industry is quietly unravelling.
Soaring rents, a deepening labour shortage, fractured supply chains and a vanishing pool of culinary talent have left businesses scrambling. In response, policymakers and industry leaders have embraced one particular remedy: the importation of foreign workers. But while expedient, this approach fails to address the underlying structural fractures hobbling the industry.

Since the 1990s, Hong Kong’s agricultural and fisheries sectors have deteriorated. Once supplying more than 30 per cent of the city’s vegetable needs, local production now accounts for around 2 per cent. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department appears to be focusing more on regulation than on development and being an industry catalyst.

Meanwhile, the city’s once-thriving fishing fleet has faded. By 2024, imports accounted for most of the seafood sold, while local fisheries produced about 92,000 tonnes. As much as half of the imported reef fish also had no traceability documentation, according to research published in the journal Marine Policy.

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