'Tears and laughter': Fish merchants reflect on 27 years of memories after moving from Senoko to Jurong Fishery Port
After 27 years of calling Senoko Fishery Port their home, some 21 fish merchants have begun moving to new market lots in Jurong on Monday (March 18) night.
For Tan Yew Meng, the move to Jurong Fishery Port, which is Singapore's only other fishing port, is a fresh start after two years of low footfall at the Senoko facility.
The 64-year-old, who manages San Wong Fishery, told AsiaOne on the first day of relocation in Mandarin: «I miss the lively crowds during Chinese New Year in the first few years at Senoko.
»But business has been getting from bad to worse over the past two years. There aren't a lot of people there anymore.«
In June 2020, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) announced that the Senoko port would be closed and the land it sits on, the size of four-and-a-half football fields, would be returned to the state.
Its future use is not known.
SFA said that the closure of Senoko Fishery Port is due to »declining activity and customer patronage" there.
The volume of seafood handled at Senoko dropped from 15,190 tonnes in 2000 to 2,743 tonnes 22 years later.