Expect To Spend More On Food, Warns Consumer Council

The Consumer Council on Monday warned that Hongkongers will probably need to fork out more for food and other daily necessities over the comings months.

Figures from the watchdog showed that the price of a basket of 230 items it monitored at supermarkets rose by almost two percent last year.

Canned food prices jumped 20 percent, while those for frozen meat rose 10 percent.

"It's not positive news," said the council's chief executive Gilly Wong.

"[The suppliers] are having a lot of challenges in shipping different kinds of goods into Hong Kong. Unfortunately, probably consumers have to suffer in the next few months with further inflation on different kinds of daily goods," she added.

The warning from the council came as it summed up the complaints it received last year. There were a total of 27,382 cases, a decrease of 11 percent when compared with 2020.

Topping the list of complaints were those regarding electrical appliances, with 2,578 cases, with telecommunication services attracting the second highest number of grievances.

The council's chairman Paul Lam attributed the rise in complaints regarding electrical appliances to the pandemic, because people were spending more time at home using them.

"It's very natural that they would see the need to replace the electrical appliance to suit their needs, for example a better air conditioner, vacuum cleaner and things like that. That gave rise to complaints as to the quality of the goods and maintenance services," he said.

The council also announced details of its revamped consumer rights reporting awards, which will no longer be held in conjunction with the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association.

Lam dismissed the idea that the partnership with the associations was ended due to political reasons, saying a revamp was needed because of important changes to mass media in recent years and the ever greater role of social media.

"We have been holding the consumer rights awards for 21 years ... We are very confident that we have already accumulated sufficient ability and experience to hold the event by ourselves," he said, adding that the council also wants to encourage the media to report on issues that affect consumer interests.

"It's really our desire to do a better job that prompted us to have a comprehensive revamp of the event."

The revamped awards will see some of the previous prizes renamed as well as the introduction of a new prize titled "Topical Reporting Award." There will also be public voting for two of the prizes.

The awards were cancelled last year amid the council's review, with the HKJA expressing disappointment over the watchdog's decision.