4 HKTDC August Fairs, Chinese Medicine Conference Conclude

20 August 2018 – Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the 29th Food Expo, the 10th Hong Kong International Tea Fair, the third Beauty & Wellness Expo and the fifth Home Delights Expo, as well as the International Conference of the Modernization of Chinese Medicine & Health Products which is jointly organised with the Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association Ltd, concluded successfully today. The four HKTDC fairs attracted a record number of nearly 2,100 exhibitors and drew 510,000 visitors.

Targeting trade buyers, the Food Expo’s Trade Hall and the Hong Kong International Tea Fair opened from 16-18 August. “The HKTDC organised over 100 buying missions from 27 countries and regions to visit the exhibitions and source products. The atmosphere at the events was great, and a large number of trade buyers reported satisfactory results. The Food Expo’s Trade Hall attracted more than 21,000 trade buyers, an increase of 3.5% compared with last year,” said HKTDC Deputy Executive Director Benjamin Chau.

Ideal Business-matching Platform Creating Trade Opportunities                  
The Food Expo’s Trade Hall gave international buyers a one-stop sourcing platform. Sheik Rajena, the Regional Director of Mohamed Mustafa & Samsuddin Co. Pte Ltd from Singapore, said they had already placed an order with a Chinese mainland supplier for a shipping container of confectionery worth in excess of US$100,000. “Negotiation is underway with an Iranian exhibitor for a container of dried figs worth about US$120,000, and with a Hong Kong exhibitor for a variety of chocolates with an estimated value of US$150,000.”

This year, Thailand’s Department of Industrial Promotion organised a Thailand pavilion at the HKTDC Food Expo for the first time, bringing in 16 food producers. One exhibitor has received an order from a Singaporean buyer for a container of crispy chicken sticks. Another company secured orders for three containers of food from Japanese and Korean buyers. The responses were very encouraging.

Jerzy Szostek, a buyer from Poland, visited the Tea Fair and talked to more than 30 Chinese mainland tea suppliers at the fair. He planned to buy five to 10 containers of green tea and black tea a year from his favoured suppliers.

Beauty & Wellness Expo: Korean Products Sold out at “K-Beauty Expo Hong Kong” Pavilion
The third Beauty & Wellness Expo ran from 16-20 August. This year, the HKTDC teamed up with the Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX) for the first time to launch a “K-Beauty Expo Hong Kong” pavilion under the theme of “Stylish K-Beauty”. The pavilion featured a wide variety of products from 45 Korean brands, which were greatly welcomed by consumers. 

Timothy Park, Overseas Business Manager of Manseok Tech Co. Ltd from Korea, said: “Since Hong Kong is a good market for Korean skincare products, we are participating at the Beauty & Wellness Expo for the first time. We hope to expand into the Asian market through the expo, to collect valuable customer feedback about our products and to look for distributors. Through the HKTDC’s business matching service, we have met with a few distributors from Hong Kong who are very interested in our products. Consumers also like our products; the oxygen moisturising cream and eyelash curlers were sold out at the expo. We estimate our sales at the five-day expo would reach HK$100,000.”

The concurrent Home Delights Expo was also welcomed by the public. ITSU World (HK) Limited participated as a first-time exhibitor this year, and its Operations Director Hei Ho noted: “We already sold more than HK$150,000 worth of massage chairs on the first day of the expo and we expect our sales turnover to hit HK$1.2 million by the end of the expo. The expo is a good place to promote our brand and do business.”

Pilot Food Container Lending Service and Cooperation with Charities in Food Waste Collection
To promote “plastic-free” living, an on-site food container lending service was pilot-run at the Food Expo this year. Visitors could borrow a reusable food container with wooden utensils at a cash deposit of HK$20, and reclaim the deposit by returning the used food container when leaving the fairground. The service was run jointly by the HKTDC, NWS Holdings Limited and social enterprise BottLess, with the wooden utensils sponsored by Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited.

“We are pleased to see positive responses from visitors to the food container lending service.  Despite being a trial run this year, it has effectively raised environmental awareness among the public. Some visitors even brought their own utensils and food containers in support of the cause,” said Mr Chau. “We will learn from this year’s experience and will hopefully expand the scale of the lending service with enhanced promotion next year, bringing across the message of ‘waste reduction at source’.”

The HKTDC continued to cooperate with “food rescue” charities, Food For Good and Food Angel, to collect and recycle packaged edible food and food waste at the fairground, and to invite exhibitors to donate food to needy communities after the fair.

For more comments from exhibitors and buyers, please visit: https://goo.gl/RDDDY9 and https://goo.gl/1Egwfo

Websites

• Food Expo: hkfoodexpo.hktdc.com
• Beauty & Wellness Expo: hkbeautyexpo.hktdc.com
• Home Delights Expo: homedelights.hktdc.com
• Tea Fair: hkteafair.hktdc.com
• International Conference of the Modernization of Chinese Medicine & Health Products: icmcm.hktdc.com

Media Enquiries
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About the HKTDC
Established in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong's businesses. With 50 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With more than 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing business insights and information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus.