The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government stresses that the food supply is stable, with continual daily supply of fresh food to Hong Kong including chilled meat, aquatic products and vegetables, and appeals to the public not to stockpile food.
According to the latest information, the volume of vegetables importing into Hong Kong yesterday (February 27) (up to midnight) from the Mainland by land and by sea amounts to 2200 tonnes, which is around 90% the average daily import volume of vegetables from the Mainland in 2021. The amount of chilled pork imported from the Mainland yesterday has risen tremendously to around 1.7 times the average daily supply. The supply of chilled poultry is maintained at around 90% of the daily average level. Supply of eggs has all along been stable. As for live pigs, the Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse has reopened and provided limited slaughtering service after thorough cleaning and disinfection. The supply of aquatic products is also largely steady.
As regards rice, in compliance with the requirement of the Government, stockholders of rice has to maintain reserve stock of rice at a level sufficient for consumption by the local population for 15 days. Apart from the requirement of the Government, the trade will generally reserve 100% more the amount of rice which suffices local consumption for one month. Suppliers will also generally reserve more stock for food that can be stocked up such as around three months' stock for frozen meat.
The Government will continue to closely monitor the food supply situation, and liaise with major food suppliers and the Mainland authorities to ensure stable food supply.
Besides, the Mainland authorities have already expressed that they would fully support the HKSAR Government to fight against the epidemic, and to ensure that there would be a sufficient supply of goods to Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government’s Task Force of Supplies from the Mainland has been working closely with the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government to explore various means to stabilise the supply of goods to Hong Kong.
The "Sea Express" water transportation service from the Mainland to Hong Kong has been launched with the facilitation and co-ordination of the Mainland authorities and the HKSAR Government as well as the active participation by the trade. Currently, there are at least three daily feeder services supporting waterway cargo supplies, including (1) from Shenzhen Yantian International Container Terminals to Hong Kong Kwai Tsing Container Terminals (KTCT); (2) from Shenzhen DaChan Bay Terminals to KTCT; and (3) from Shenzhen Mawan Container Terminal to Hong Kong River Trade Terminal.
According to information from the Mainland authorities, the three terminals of Yantian, DaChan Bay and Mawan port transported about 700 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) (over 4 000 tonnes) of supplies to Hong Kong yesterday (February 27), among which more than 20 TEUs (over 200 tonnes) were fresh food and over 650 TEUs (over 3 800 tonnes) were non-fresh food. Since the launch of the services, over 3 000 TEUs, with over 19 700 tonnes of cargo, have been shipped to Hong Kong from the three terminals, among which over 100 TEUs (over 1 200 tonnes) have been fresh food and over 2 900 TEUs (over 18 000 tonnes) have been non-fresh food.
In addition to staunchly expanding water transport and strongly promoting rail cargo transport, the HKSAR Government is also implementing different measures to improve land transport arrangements. Some initial achievements with the various aforementioned measures have been achieved with the increasing goods volume via water transport and the generally stable food supply.
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