Residents wait for delicacies at Food Expo

Nearly 200 people lined up at the front gate of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday morning to wait for numerous generous discounts offered at the 2016 Food Expo.

The crowd included around a dozen people who even waited overnight.

A man, surnamed Ho, said he had waited at the site since Tuesday afternoon. Ho said he was aiming to get some abalones at only HK$1 for 10 lucky participants, who throw a fortune bag onto an “abalone wish tree” to win the prizes. Ho, the first to arrive at the event, later won 40 abalones.

An 87-year-old woman, surnamed Chan, and her granddaughter won the top prize at the “abalone wish tree” event. Having waited since Wednesday noon, they took home 168 abalones worth more than HK$7,000.

Richard Poon Kuen-fai, managing director of On Kee Dry Seafood, organizer of the abalone event, said the Food Expo is popular among both Hong Kong residents and tourists. But the local retail sector is facing downward pressure this year due to slowing economy. He predicts his company’s sales in 2016 will maintain the level of last year without significant growth.

Another “HK$1 offer”, put forward by NanaMee, a Singaporean instant noodle brand, also attracted the crowd. Ten sets of rice vermicelli, each worth HK$600 and offered at HK$1, were sold out in a minute.

Chan Yuan-kwan, a marketing manager of NanaMee, said there have been abundant visitors to the Food Expo. Although the retail sector is facing tough times, she still thinks sales volumes for her company at the event, with multiple discounts and gifts, could grow by 20 per- cent compared with last year.

The most-famous food and beverage exhibition and sales event is not only popular among local residents, but also attracts a lot of tourists. A woman, surnamed Lei, said she and five companions came from Guangzhou by train on Thursday morning specially to visit the expo. Together, they spent HK$12,000 buying seafood, ginseng, velvet antlers and other delicacies from the expo.

The Food Expo, organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and attracting more than 1,400 exhibitors, will run until Monday.