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Panorama of Hong Kong night skyline. Taken from Lugard Road at Victoria Peak.

Photo: Base64 and Derivative work by Globe-trotter · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale

Topic 13 of 18 · Country Index 2026

Hong Kong: Food & Agriculture

What does a country grow, and what does it take to grow it?

Hong Kong is placed 137th of 184 countries on food & agriculture in the Country Index 2026, from 2 of its 4 key statistics. Readings behind it: Progress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy) 2.83 (2024); Cereal Yield 2,059 (2023).

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Food & Agriculture

137th

of 184 countries placed

Placed from 2 of 4 key statistics

01The evidence

The 4 key statistics that decide it

Only these place Hong Kong on food & agriculture — one vote each. Every value is the publisher’s own, read at the edition the Country Index 2026 used; the grey ticks are every other country it was compared with, lowest on the left.

Why these keys
  1. Key 1 of 4

    Progress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy)

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

    Why it is a key: How productive and how sustainable a country's farming is at once — output, inputs, water, emissions and farm work scored together, which is what it takes to grow food rather than how much is grown.

    2024 edition · data for 2024 · CC BY 4.0

    2.83

    Current status score, from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), averaged over up to seven sub-indicators

    Higher is better

    Hong Kong: 2.83. Across the 186 countries in this edition, values run from 1.67 (Tuvalu) to 4.57 (Italy); the world median is 3.14.

    World median
    3.14
    Best in Eastern Asia
    4.17 China and Japan
    Land neighbours
    China 4.17

    Each grey tick is one of 186 countries in the 2024 edition.

  2. Key 2 of 4

    Cereal Yield

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

    Why it is a key: How much food a hectare of land produces: the clearest single measure of how productively a country farms.

    2023 edition · data for 2023 · CC BY 4.0

    2,059

    Cereal yield (kg per hectare)

    Higher is better

    Hong Kong: 2,059. Across the 179 countries in this edition, values run from 23 (Cabo Verde) to 29,147 (Oman); the world median is 3,072.

    World median
    3,072
    Best in Eastern Asia
    6,615 South Korea
    Land neighbours
    China 6,418

    Each grey tick is one of 179 countries in the 2023 edition.

  3. Key 3 of 4

    Dietary Energy Supply

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

    Why it is a key: Whether the food a country produces and imports covers what its population needs to eat, measured before anyone has eaten it.

    2024 edition · data for 2024 · CC BY 4.0

    No reading

    Dietary energy supply (kcal per person per day)

    Higher is better

    FAO publishes no 2024 figure for Hong Kong, so the standing rests on the other keys.

    Across the 155 countries in this edition, values run from 1,757 (Somalia) to 3,962 (United States); the world median is 2,982.

    World median
    2,982
    Best in Eastern Asia
    3,504 China
    Land neighbours
    China 3,504

    Each grey tick is one of 155 countries in the 2024 edition.

  4. Key 4 of 4

    Agriculture Orientation Index

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

    Why it is a key: How much public spending agriculture attracts set against the share of the economy it produces — whether a state invests in its farms or lives off them.

    2024 edition · data for 2024 · CC BY 4.0

    No reading

    Agriculture orientation index (1.0 = spending matches sector size)

    Higher is better

    FAO publishes no 2024 figure for Hong Kong, so the standing rests on the other keys.

    Across the 132 countries in this edition, values run from 0.03 (Ghana) to 5.38 (Singapore); the world median is 0.305.

    World median
    0.305
    Best in Eastern Asia
    0.95 China
    Land neighbours
    China 0.95

    Each grey tick is one of 132 countries in the 2024 edition.

03In context

Hong Kong beside its neighbours

A position reads best beside the countries around it. Every position below is a place among all 184 countries on food & agriculture, never a place within the region.

Eastern Asia
1st184thNot placed · 40 countries with too few key statisticsNo data

The whole world on food & agriculture

Hong Kong and the countries it borders

The standing is each country’s place among all 184 placed on the topic; the other columns are the publishers’ own values, read at the edition the standing used.

CountryStandingProgress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy)Current status score, from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), averaged over up to seven sub-indicatorsCereal YieldCereal yield (kg per hectare)Dietary Energy SupplyDietary energy supply (kcal per person per day)Agriculture Orientation IndexAgriculture orientation index (1.0 = spending matches sector size)
China6th4.176,4183,5040.95
Hong Kong137th2.832,059——

“—” means the publisher gives no reading for that country in that edition. A country needs readings on enough keys to be placed.

Across Eastern Asia

Every country in the sub-region, by its place among all 184.

Placed either side on food & agriculture

The countries immediately above and below Hong Kong in the topic’s list.

04Context, no vote

Where Hong Kong is ahead of the world, and behind

22 more statistics filed under food & agriculture, published in full and deliberately given no vote in the standing. Select a row for the publisher, the rank and the links.

Every country

Ahead of the world median7

Statistics on which Hong Kong does better than the middle country measured.

  • Agricultural Emissions IntensityFAO · 2023 · world median 1.5650.33▲ Improved since 2013

    Hong Kong: 0.33 · world median 1.565 · Greenhouse gases from farming per value of agricultural output (kg CO₂eq per international dollar). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 28.2; lower is better.

    Position 183rd of 190 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = worst. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Food Production IndexFAO · 2022 · world median 106.08141.66▲ Improved since 2012

    Hong Kong: 141.66 · world median 106.08 · Food production index (2014–2016 = 100). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2022 edition, data for 2022.

    Published values in that edition run from 71.08 to 177.49; higher is better.

    Position 12th of 195 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2022 dataset

  • Livestock Production IndexFAO · 2022 · world median 107.06149.97▲ Improved since 2012

    Hong Kong: 149.97 · world median 107.06 · Livestock production index (2014–2016 = 100). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2022 edition, data for 2022.

    Published values in that edition run from 35.52 to 190.08; higher is better.

    Position 13th of 194 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2022 dataset

  • Share of Dietary Energy Supply from Cereals, Roots and TubersFAO · 2022 · world median 4128No real change since 2012

    Hong Kong: 28 · world median 41 · Share of dietary energy supply from cereals, roots and tubers (%). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2022 edition, data for 2022.

    Published values in that edition run from 21 to 82; lower is better.

    Chart and every countryThe 2022 dataset

  • Vegetable Supply per PersonFAO · 2023 · world median 102.69172.56▲ Improved since 2013

    Hong Kong: 172.56 · world median 102.69 · Vegetables available as food (kg per person per year). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 6.89 to 412.72; higher is better.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Value Added per WorkerWorld Bank Group · 2025 · world median 6,74223,547▼ Worsened since 2015

    Hong Kong: 23,547 · world median 6,742 · Agricultural value added per worker (constant 2015 US$). World Bank Group, 2025 edition, data for 2025.

    Published values in that edition run from 210.77 to 150,632; higher is better.

    Position 32nd of 151 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2025 dataset

  • Prevalence of UndernourishmentFAO · 2023 · world median 5.23.1▼ Worsened since 2013

    Hong Kong: 3.1 · world median 5.2 · Population undernourished (%). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 2.5 to 54.2; lower is better.

    Position 99th of 104 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = worst. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

Behind the world median2

Statistics on which Hong Kong does worse than the middle country measured.

  • Fruit Supply per PersonFAO · 2023 · world median 84.8375.07▼ Worsened since 2013

    Hong Kong: 75.07 · world median 84.83 · Fruit available as food, excluding wine (kg per person per year). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 4.27 to 379.63; higher is better.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Crop Production IndexFAO · 2022 · world median 106.23101.49▼ Worsened since 2012

    Hong Kong: 101.49 · world median 106.23 · Crop production index (2014–2016 = 100). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2022 edition, data for 2022.

    Published values in that edition run from 53.79 to 189.93; higher is better.

    Position 122nd of 195 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2022 dataset

No better end13

These describe the shape of a country — more is not better or worse, only different — so they are never ahead or behind.

  • Livestock DensityFAO · 2023 · world median 0.53518.42No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 18.42 · world median 0.535 · Livestock units per hectare of agricultural land. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.02 to 43.97.

    Position 2nd of 188 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Cropland Nitrogen BalanceFAO · 2023 · world median 37.63595.92No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 595.92 · world median 37.63 · Nitrogen surplus (+) or deficit (−) on cropland, kg per hectare. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from -555.52 to 1,199.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Fish and Seafood Supply per PersonFAO · 2023 · world median 16.1769.11No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 69.11 · world median 16.17 · Fish and seafood available as food (kg per person per year, live-weight equivalent). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.38 to 83.81.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Fertilizer Consumption per HectareFAO · 2023 · world median 87.36484No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 484 · world median 87.36 · Fertilizer consumption (kg per hectare of arable land). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 2,926.

    Position 9th of 188 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Cereal Import Dependency RatioFAO · 2022 · world median 42.8100Moved since 2012

    Hong Kong: 100 · world median 42.8 · Share of the cereal supply that is imported (%). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2022 edition, data for 2022.

    Published values in that edition run from -1,894 to 100.

    Chart and every countryThe 2022 dataset

  • Meat Supply per PersonFAO · 2023 · world median 57.83107.43Moved since 2013

    Hong Kong: 107.43 · world median 57.83 · Meat available as food (kg per person per year, carcass weight). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 3.49 to 156.95.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Pesticide Use per HectareFAO · 2024 · world median 1.7318No real change since 2014

    Hong Kong: 18 · world median 1.73 · Pesticide use (kg per hectare of cropland). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2024 edition, data for 2024.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 37.72.

    Position 17th of 178 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2024 dataset

  • Fisheries and Aquaculture ProductionFAO · 2024 · world median 52,37594,832Moved since 2014

    Hong Kong: 94,832 · world median 52,375 · Fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic animals caught or farmed, tonnes (live weight). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2024 edition, data for 2024.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 70,500,841.

    Chart and every countryThe 2024 dataset

  • Agricultural EmissionsFAO · 2023 · world median 8,63550.5No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 50.5 · world median 8,635 · Farm-gate emissions (kt CO₂eq). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 1,044,508.

    Position 175th of 193 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Agricultural LandFAO · 2023 · world median 37.963.81No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 3.81 · world median 37.96 · Agricultural land (% of land area). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.445 to 86.48.

    Position 197th of 209 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Employment in AgricultureILO · 2025 · world median 14.380.182No real change since 2015

    Hong Kong: 0.182 · world median 14.38 · Employment in agriculture (% of total employment). International Labour Organization (ILO), 2025 edition, data for 2025.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.095 to 85.34.

    Position 181st of 182 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2025 dataset

  • Arable Land per PersonFAO · 2023 · world median 0.1090No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 0 · world median 0.109 · Arable land (hectares per person). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 1.459.

    Position 205th of 206 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Land Under Cereal ProductionFAO · 2023 · world median 689,2780No real change since 2013

    Hong Kong: 0 · world median 689,278 · Land under cereal production (hectares). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 103,715,108.

    Position 179th of 179 — derived here by ordering the published values, counted from the highest value. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

05Country Index 2026

Food & Agriculture among Hong Kong’s 12 topics

Food & Agriculture is Hong Kong’s 11th best-placed topic of 12. Strongest first; each marker sits at the position divided by that topic’s field, so fields of different sizes compare fairly.

On the profile
  1. Mobility & Trade3rd of 177
  2. Peace & Security15th of 177
  3. Work & Labour22nd of 182
  4. Governance & Institutions36th of 194
  5. Education & Knowledge40th of 198
  6. Development & Human Capital40th of 196
  7. Economy & Innovation37th of 176
  8. Gender & Equality42nd of 183
  9. Digital & Technology57th of 198
  10. Democracy & Civil Liberties129th of 198
  11. Food & Agriculture137th of 184
  12. Energy141st of 165

No standing on Health & Wellbeing, Environment & Sustainability, Risk & Resilience, Poverty & Inequality: too few of those topics’ key statistics are published for this country.

06The top of the list

Who leads on food & agriculture

The three countries placed highest of 184, and the leaders Hong Kong can most readily be measured against.

All 184 countries
  1. 1

    Serbia

    Southern Europe

    1st of 184 · 4 of 4 keys

    Photo: Lošmi derivative work: Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale

  2. 2

    Austria

    Western Europe

    2nd of 184 · 4 of 4 keys

    Photo: chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0, greyscale

  3. 3

    Malta

    Southern Europe

    3rd of 184 · 3 of 4 keys

    Photo: Dirk Heldmaier derivative work: Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale

Placed highest nearby

  1. Highest in Asia

    Japan5th2/4 keys
  2. This page

    Hong Kong137th2/4 keys

Positions out of 184 placed on the topic. A country needs readings on enough keys to be placed, and the top of the list is often held on fewer of them.

07Questions

Hong Kong on food & agriculture: questions answered

Every answer is built from the numbers on this page, so none can say something the page does not.

How does Hong Kong rank on food & agriculture?

Hong Kong is placed 137th of 184 countries on Food & Agriculture in the Country Index 2026, from 2 of its 4 key statistics (Progress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy) and Cereal Yield). The position is this site’s ordering of published statistics, not a rank any publisher printed.

What is the latest Progress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy) figure for Hong Kong?

2.83 in 2024 (current status score, from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), averaged over up to seven sub-indicators), according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The world median in the same edition was 3.14.

What is the latest Cereal Yield figure for Hong Kong?

2,059 in 2023 (cereal yield (kg per hectare)), according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The world median in the same edition was 3,072.

How does Hong Kong compare with China on food & agriculture?

China is placed 6th of 184, and Hong Kong 137th. Progress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy): China 4.17, Hong Kong 2.83; Cereal Yield: China 6,418, Hong Kong 2,059.

How have Hong Kong’s food & agriculture figures changed?

Progress Toward Productive and Sustainable Agriculture (SDG 2.4.1 Proxy) fell from 3 in 2015 to 2.83 in 2024; Cereal Yield rose from 1,923 in 2000 to 2,059 in 2023; Agriculture Orientation Index rose from 1.35 in 2002 to 3.67 in 2023.

Which food & agriculture statistics are missing for Hong Kong?

No current reading is published for Hong Kong on Agricultural Irrigated Land, Agriculture Orientation Index, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Value Added (% of GDP), Dietary Energy Supply, Global Report on Food Crises, Legal Guarantees of Women's Equal Rights to Land, Organic Agricultural Area, Per Capita Food Supply Variability, Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity, Water Withdrawal by Sector and Women's Share of Agricultural Landowners. They are listed rather than hidden, so the evidence on the page can be checked against it.

09Method

Method, sources and how to cite

What this topic does not measure

This subject is about production and land use, not about whether people are fed. Hunger, undernourishment and what a population actually eats are measured under Health & Wellbeing, and the two regularly disagree — a country can grow a great deal and still leave many people short, and one that grows little can be well fed by trade. The wider environmental cost of farming — emissions, water withdrawal, forest cover — is filed under Environment & Sustainability.

About food & agriculture, in full

How the Food & Agriculture standing is decided, step by step

A standing is a place in a list, not a mark out of anything. This one is part of the Country Index 2026, and it is worked out like this.

  1. A few key indicators decide it; the rest are context. 4 indicators on this topic are keys and 31 are charted alongside them without a vote. That split is the point: if every statistic voted, importing five more of one kind would quietly change what the topic is about.
  2. Each key is read at one edition. ⚠ The keys behind this standing do not all describe the same year — they run from 2023 to 2024, because publishers release on their own schedules. Read the standing as “how this country places now”, not as a snapshot of one year.
  3. Every country’s published value is turned into a place within that one key’s own field, and then expressed as a share of that field — how far down this key’s list the country sits, rather than how many countries are above it. Keys where a higher published number is worse (terrorism, hunger, disaster risk) are turned round first, so the good end is always the same end.
  4. Dividing by the field first is the whole reason this works. A place carries the size of its list inside it: 22nd of 44 and 108th of 215 are the same showing, and averaging the numbers 22 and 108 says loudly that they are not. Fields on this site run from about 44 countries to about 215, so averaging raw places would reward a country for happening to be measured in small ones. Dividing each place by its own field removes the size and leaves only the showing.
  5. The shares are averaged, plainly. One key, one vote — no key is weighted above another, because any weighting would be this site’s opinion presented as a measurement. Countries are then put in order by that average, and the average itself is never published. It is our arithmetic with nothing anchoring it, so printing it would invite it to be read as a measurement somebody made. The position it produces, the band, and the keys it was built from are all published instead — every one of them checkable against the tables on this page.
  6. A country needs 2 of this topic’s 4 keys — half, rounded up, and never fewer than 2. A standing built from one reading, printed beside one built from four, is two different things sharing a column heading. 184 countries clear the bar here.
  7. A key has to earn its vote every edition. It must measure at least 120 countries (below that it starts measuring who was surveyed rather than the world), it must not have more than 10% of its field tied at either end, and it must not repeat another key in the same topic — Spearman correlation above 0.92 counts as repeating. A topic needs at least 2 surviving keys to place anyone at all; this one has 4.
  8. A standing is relative, and the grouping is ours. It says where a country places against the others measured alongside it, so it moves when they move. The publishers listed on this page did not agree to be read together, and each measures its subject its own way: the underlying numbers are theirs, the ordering on top is this site’s — the same method as the rest of the Country Index, applied to one subject instead of all of them.

The key statistics and their licences

The other 22 statistics on this page come from 3 publishers, each named beside its numbers, with every edition and licence on the datasets pages.

The standing itself is part of the Country Index 2026, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photographs

Hong Kong’s banner and the countries placed highest, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.

Cite this page

Nations Inquiry (2026). Hong Kong: Food & Agriculture — standing and statistics, Country Index 2026. https://nationsinquiry.com/countries/hong-kong/food

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