Hong Kong sauce maker to close after 90 years, making way for Northern Metropolis

One of Hong Kong’s last traditional sauce makers is to cease operations, ending its 90-year legacy, after authorities cleared land at its Kwu Tung factory on Friday.

Established in 1936, Kui Lee Sauce and Preserved Fruit confirmed to the South China Morning Post that it would close down once its remaining inventory at its shop in Wan Chai was sold.

“Our factory in Kwu Tung has halted production, and all remaining stock is at our retail shop. We will close permanently after selling through all inventory,” an employee of Kui Lee Sauce told an SCMP reporter, who posed as a customer.

As a nearly time-honoured brand Hong Kong brand, Kui Lee has been passed down through three generations and is known for being “100 per cent made in Hong Kong”.

Having moved from Kowloon City to Kwu Tung in the 1960s, the factory has insisted on making soy sauce and vinegar using traditional sun-drying methods.

Its soy sauce has long been renowned in Hong Kong and has been exported to other markets in recent years, including Taiwan.

On Friday morning, more than 30 security guards and police officers were deployed to the Kui Lee sauce factory and Tong Kok Village in Kwu Tung to execute eviction notices.

The area is subject to a land resumption operation under the government’s Northern Metropolis megaproject, which aims to transform about 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) of land into a technology hub and serve as an economic engine.

People wearing vests marked “NDA” – short for the New Development Areas under the Northern Metropolis strategy – were seen entering the sauce factory and spoke with the owner in a room for more than 30 minutes.

More than 12 security guards stood outside, while another dozen cordoned off the entrance and locked the steel gate.

Most of the guards left the factory at around 12.10pm after a notice was posted on the gate stating that the site had been taken over by the government. November 6 will be the final date for cutting water and electricity and clearing items at the site.

Three security guards still stationed at the entrance were allowing workers temporary access to the factory through the gate.

The factory representatives declined to comment on the clearance.

The Lands Department’s clearance operation faced pushback from villagers on the site, many of whom had lived there for half a century.

A handful of residents were packing up the last of their belongings in homes they had lived in for decades, among them the Chan family.

“After all, we’ve lived here for more than 50 years. I feel reluctant to leave,” said Chan, a retiree in her seventies, standing in front of her house and wiping away tears with a towel. “This is half a century of memories.”

Her son, in his forties and born and raised in the house, was wrapping up a final batch of daily necessities with his wife.

“We were told the exact date of the land clearance not long ago, and our electricity was cut two days ago,” Chan’s daughter-in-law said.

“I was washing clothes when the power went off, and we could only use a torch to pack our things at night.”

She added that the water pipes had been destroyed by someone in recent days.

“We used to have a big family living here together for a whole life. Now we’re all separated.”

Nearby, dozens of security guards and lands officials had surrounded another resident’s home and were preparing to lock it up, but a dispute broke out when the owner said they had not finished packing.

Staff prevented people from filming or getting closer to the site, citing “security concerns”.