Biz Down For Some Fish Soup Hawkers: “People Think Fish Port Kena, Fish Also Kena”

“People think fish port kena, fish will kena, so everyone will kena. My customers have dropped by a lot – about 40 percent,” laments 49-year-old Irwin Ng, owner of Tekong Island Fish Soup stall at Takashimaya Food Village’s food court. “Some customers probably don’t want to come out because of the number of unlinked cases. My biz has taken a huge hit. I really don’t know what to do,” he shares.

To cope with the loss of a steady supply of seafood, the hawker might rely on frozen fish for the time being. “Both my suppliers are from Jurong Fishery Port. I’m already looking for other sources, but if I can’t find any, I’ll stop serving sliced fish soup for now. I’ll just serve frozen fish deep-fried,” he says resignedly.

The super popular First Street Teochew Fish Soup (now co-owned by the BreadTalk Group) usually attracts massive queues at their original outlet on Upper Serangoon Road. However, an 8days.sg reader and regular customer who declined to be named told us she noticed only “a handful of people, about five or six” in the queue at 10am yesterday (July 18). “Usually, the line is so long it snakes outside the coffee shop around this time on weekends,” she shares. The hawkers behind First Street declined to be interviewed for this story.

There has been uncertainty in the supply chain, particularly for species like batang (a fave at fish soup stalls), which hails from Indonesia. ”My supplier says he reserved some fish for me. We should have enough batang for this week, but after that, I’m not sure,” says Kek Wan Fong, the 39-year-old ex-head chef of seafood restaurant Naked Finn, who opened his own fish soup joint Qing Feng Yuan at Tiong Bahru Food Centre. Supplies for the hawker’s more atas New Zealand blue cod, however, remain unaffected.

Wan Fong adds, “My supplier provides the fish at a fixed rate, so he’s taking the loss – but I’ve heard that prices are up by 20 to 30 per cent.”

He has had to close his stall from July 18 to 19 to undergo mandatory testing because his stall falls under NEA’s purview, which requires certain stall holders to get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at designated centres before resuming business. “It’s good to arrange these tests for us, as we’re also scared,” he shares.

His stall remained open on July 17 after news of the cluster first broke, and he saw a “10 to 20 percent” dip in business. “As for this week, we’ll be opening on July 20 onwards, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Though only stall holders operating in NEA-managed food centres like Wan Fong had to report for mandatory testing, all hawkers interviewed for this story have been keeping up to date with their swabbing.

Eric Lee (right in pic), the second-gen owner of Arcade Fish Soup who runs the brand’s four outlets alongside brother Lee Wei Sheng, says, “Our suppliers from Jurong have stopped [selling fish] until they’re given the all clear. We’re talking to other suppliers – it’s not easy as good grade fish is in demand even before [the cluster], and most suppliers have existing relationships with other stalls. [The price] is going to increase for sure, we’re just not sure by how much yet”.

As the brand’s four branches are spread across Raffles Place and Marina Bay area, they haven’t seen “much difference in terms of customers as our outlets are primarily in the CBD where work-from-home has been the default since the start,” shares Eric. “Meaning [biz is] quite bad still.”

“[Our delivery hotline] received more queries since the new cluster emerged,” he adds. “Customers are concerned about our source of fish, understandably.” As a precaution, he says they have done supervised self-swab tests for all their outlet workers”.

The hawker behind Wang Yuan Fish Soup (which offers unique durian-spiked fish soup), Derrick Ng, 40, has also faced problems with getting a steady supply of batang fish. “We are concerned about the stability [of our supply chain], but thankfully we use other types of fish like salmon, cod and sole as well.”

“There’s been a 20 per cent price increase [for batang]. We’re stomaching the extra costs for now,” says Derrick. Luckily for him, he says business at his fish soup stall remains largely unaffected. “We didn’t get any cancellations [for group buys]. There’s also a constant flow of customers still.”

He attributes this to the fact that he took the self-administered swab test after the emergence of the Jurong Fishery Port Cluster, and posted the results on his stall’s Facebook page. “That way, it’s easier to give my customers peace of mind to buy my food,” he adds.

Qing Feng Yuan is at #02-49 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Rd, S168898.

Tekong Island Fish Soup is at Takashimaya Food Village, Takashimaya Basement 2, 391 Orchard Rd, S238873.

First Street Teochew Fish Soup is at 1014 Upper Serangoon Road, S534752.

Arcade Fish Soup has four outlets, including #B2-69 Marina Bay Link Mall, 10 Marina Boulevard, S018983.

Wang Yuan Fish Soup is at Foodpark Coffeeshop, 519A Tampines Central 8, S521519.

Photos: Eric Lee, Alvin Teo, Kelvin Chia, Derrick Ng, Aik Chen