Durians sell for RM340 in fruit-loving HK
HONG KONG: It might be a healthy food choice, but Hong Kong’s latest fruit fad is doing serious damage to shoppers’ wallets.
From luxury supermarkets to outdoor stalls, expensive premium produce is increasingly on show and sought after by customers.
At the vibrant Yau Ma Tei fruit market, a Malaysian durian goes for HK$600 (RM340) and Tasmanian cherries for HK$550.
On the shelves of high-end supermarket City Super, a single Japanese strawberry recently fetched a whopping HK$168.
The appetite for pricey fruit from far afield reflects a quest for what punters see as clean, fresh produce, even if it has travelled thousands of miles.
Fruit shoppers said they did not consider produce from mainland China — the source of much of Hong Kong’s food — as healthy.
“I used to buy mainland fruit, but now I could never go back. It is not as safe and fresh,” said Peter Wong, an accountant who says he spends around HK$2,000 on imported fruit each month for himself, his wife and their two children.
Reports of farmers using excessive pesticides, fertilisers and preservatives in China have damaged the reputation of its produce, and food grown locally in Hong Kong is very limited.
The durian at Chan’s stall was carefully grown, picked ripe, then frozen and flown here, he said, making it more expensive than fruit shipped by sea which ripens during the journey.
As Hong Kong battles to contain food waste, critics say highend fruit is an environmental hazard due to its overpackaging.
But for some, that is part of the appeal.