HK Consumer Council urges greater transparency as supermarket products shrinkage

The Hong Kong Consumer Council revealed yesterday (Oct. 15) that 62 supermarket products maintained their prices but had their sizes or weights reduced over the past three and a half years, with 90% of them seeing a reduction, some by as much as 30%. Nearly 40% of these products effectively had a more than 10% price increase.

Addressing whether Hong Kong might consider legislation similar to overseas examples, the Chief Executive of the Consumer Council, Gilly Wong, stated today (Oct. 16) on a radio show that overseas markets benefit from significant local production and supply, making it easier for manufacturers to comply with legal requirements.

Wong indicated that since local production and supply primarily sell imported goods, legislating manufacturer compliance may not be appropriate. Instead, increasing transparency of information to satisfy consumers' basic rights is deemed most suitable. Nonetheless, further measures will be considered if an extreme situation arises, such as all products substantially reducing in quantity.

Wong explained that some manufacturers claim the need to reduce the number of items in individual food packages due to rising costs, allowing them to maintain the original selling price. Others say the changes aim to "uniform packaging across different markets to increase production efficiency."

"Regardless of the reason, the focus should be on consumers' right to be informed. Manufacturers are responsible for informing consumers about price changes and help them track price movements, with 'unit pricing' being an optimal approach," said Wong.

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Consumer Council: 90% of supermarket products have reduced quantities or increased prices