Hong Kong hawkers find finance chief’s food truck plan unappetising

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah’s plan to introduce food trucks to Hong Kong was unappetising, hawkers said, after the idea was wheeled out in the budget speech yesterday.

Tsang said that he had “asked relevant departments ... to consider introducing food trucks, which are popular abroad, to the mix of Hong Kong’s existing food scene”, seeing it as a good attraction for tourists too.

But itinerant hawkers like fruit seller Chan Kai-tai said the idea would hit a roadblock.

“Hong Kong’s roads are too small to accommodate the trucks,” Chan, who works in Yuen Long, said. “I mean, it’ll work if the van is parked on a country park road in Lau Fau Shan or somewhere, but then who would go so far to buy food? It’s not really going to happen.”

Chan added that food trucks would be expensive to set up and maintain and therefore out of financial reach for hawkers. He said he would not consider applying for a food truck licence.

Another hawker, Fa Yuen Street-based Chan Kong-chiu, said Tsang’s plan would only benefit big companies able to afford the start-up costs.