Upon stepping foot into the seafood dried food outlet, you will be greeted with shelves filled with of a wide range of daily necessities, oil and salt, delicacies, from mushrooms and river fish to bird's nest and abalone.

"Reminiscing the past, I followed my parents to the dry food store to buy seasonal ingredients. With a curious mind I glanced around. Everything felt new."

For Chua Wui Meng (54), who accompanied his parents to sell dried provisions since childhood, the dried food outlet is a familiar place. Since taking over the "Ah Pau Chop" left by his parents, he humbly continued his business with a history of 61 years.

About 20 years ago, he joined hands with his peers to establish the Victoria Wholesale Centre Business Association. Since then, he has been Chairman. As a representative of the industry, he took on the duty to make a voice and contribute to his peers.

During this period, Mr Chua witnessed the changes of seafood dried food industry with his parents for decades. Although he experienced challenges such as forced relocation and change of license regulations, he never thought that this industry would flourish.

Today, Mr Chua is still full of confidence in the face of the fierce online shopping boom. "As long as you and I still need to eat, the market demand in this industry will not decline."

Through this issue of "close-up", the reporter learned how the seafood dried food industry, which has existed ever since we were born, strives for stable development between sunrise and sunset with the change of times.

This signboard hanging on the second floor behind the store in the wholesale centre was used when it was open at Victoria Street situated in Bugis more than 20 years ago.

 

The predecessor of "Ah Pau Chop" began when Mr Chua's parents set up a pushcart stall in front of a main store when they were young. After Singapore's independence, the booth was moved to Lau Pat Sat.

20 years later, the couple finally owned the store and worked hard for many years and handed it over to Mr Chua. In the early years, daily necessities were taken for granted, but once upon a time, industries such as science and technology and beauty quietly weakened the importance of the dry food industry.

In recent years, online shopping has become popular, which has an impact on many traditional industries. Four or five years ago, Ah Pau Chop also began to create a website to allow customers to purchase and pay by themselves, and then wait for door-to-door delivery. It seems logical for the "Asian charter" to catch up with this trend, but the website has been launched for several years, and actually accounts for far less than 10% of sales. The reason is that customers who intend to buy seafood or dried food have a bargaining mentality more or less. More importantly, customers need to personally verify the quality of food materials and visit three stores on the spot before they dare to purchase with a peace of mind.

At present, the varieties of food materials on the market are more and more diversified. Customers can also listen to the introduction of Lao xingzun in the store and teach them how to choose.

The "Ah Pau Chop" signboard used by parents more than 60 years ago has been mottled off, but its commemorative value has increased.

 

Specifically, to judge whether seafood products are fresh, we need to start from three aspects: smell, feel and colour, whether they smell peculiar smell, whether they are too dry or too wet, and whether the colour has changed.

I'm afraid it's difficult to do this by online shopping alone.

Having been in business for many years, Mr Chua also witnessed the decline of many sunset industries, such as plastic products and traditional handicrafts. Most of them had to withdraw from the historical stage because they were not inherited.

But Mr Chua is confident that this business will not usher in the sunset. As mentioned at the beginning, as long as we still need to eat, daily necessities will not disappear from life, and so will this industry 

The ladle made of coconut shell handed down by my grandfather has a history of more than half a century and is still used in the store today.

Ah Pau Chop's third relocation

As the saying goes, "firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea" is clearly a necessity of life and can meet the basic needs of food and clothing. Why is "tea" included?

It is said that drinking tea can refresh the mind, relieve summer heat and clear the heart. The ancients always regarded it as an elegant and popular living habit, so it was also included in the "seven things to open the door".

On the day of the interview, when my photography colleagues and I arrived at the Victoria Wholesale centre on Jialeng Road, Mr Chua brewed a pot of Tie Guan Yin and invited us listen to the story while sipping on tea.

He is the fourth oldest in his family. He has an eldest sister and five brothers. Except for his youngest sibiling, everyone was involved in the business. While his mother Low Ah Lek (87 years old) has entered the old age, she still oversees the dried food outlet every day.

When Mr Chua's parents started to set up a stall, he was not born yet. He could only slowly piece together a complete impression from his elders.

His father Chua Ju Sheng came from Chao Shan, China. At the age of 16, he journeyed from far and worked as a waiter everywhere to make a living. Later, there were fewer job opportunities. My father planned to do business by himself. After getting married in 1957, the couple set up a five legged stall in front of the store near "chaichuantou" (Singapore River) to sell ginger, onion, potato and other vegetables.

At that time, there was no need to apply for a license to set up stalls. Many vendors robbed each other of their sites. It was not easy to make a living.

After China declared its independence in 1965, the government began to rectify and regulate the foothold of unlicensed vendors by legislation, requiring them to move to the temporarily established Lau Pat Sat, New Pat Sat, tiebazha and many other places.

Mr Chua's parents moved into New Pat Sat with the brigade. The facilities there are very simple. Only iron sheets are used to build the roof, which is stuffy and airtight. Individual stalls are also limited in space, only about three meters long and two meters wide, accommodating a total of 40 or 50 vendors.

Mr Chua still remembers that every day after school, he had to go to the place where his parents set up a stall. Sometimes he watched them sell things, sometimes he did his homework, and sometimes he was bored and dazed.

"I didn't have to go out with my classmates. I was more and more tired of living in market after school. I vowed not to touch this business when I grew up." At this point, he couldn't help smiling.

A lively scene reappears at the end of the year

After completing his military service, Mr Chua spent three years doing chores at his parents' stall, but he finally wanted to go out and wander.

At the age of 24, he resolutely "ran away" from the family business and joined the insurance industry. Unexpectedly, he "returned" to his parents' old business in the third year.

"My friend asked me if I was interested in importing mushrooms for business. I said why not try?" Since then, he can no longer get rid of his relationship with the seafood dry food industry.

In 1996, his father died of cancer. Mr Chua fully supported the trademark of Ah Pau Chop and inherited the fighting spirit of the previous generation through the development of import and export trade.

The next year, in line with the government's planning, the business site was transferred to Victoria Street. At that time, it was like a busy market. Many Chinese people would come to admire the name if they wanted to buy high-quality seafood and dry food.

However, Ah Pau can not escape the fate of relocating again. Mr Chua and other experts spent 10 years to find the Wholesale Centre now located in Kallang and officially moved in in 2012, which is a stable foothold.

Mr Chua revealed that every December, every household is busy responding to the festival, and the sales of seafood dry food products will increase sharply as scheduled, accounting for about 40% of the annual sales.

Therefore, the peak season at the end of each year is the busiest time of the Wholesale Centre, which seems to go back to the old scene on Victoria Street.

Mobile phones have become a new necessity, and the status of dry food is much lower than before

Chua Wui Meng (second from left at the back) takes a group photo of his family when he was a child. His mother, grandfather and father are in the front row from left, while his eldest sister and five brothers are standing in the back row.

The trademark of Ah Pau Chop follows the nickname of his father Cai Ju Sheng. In the past, when he was in his hometown in Chao Shan, everyone called him that.

The original wooden signboard was very simple. The two characters "Ah Pau" (Ya Bao) were written on it with a brush. After decades of wind and frost, the paint had been mottled and could not hide the vicissitudes of the years.

Mr Chua keeps this old signboard to this day. As a symbol of connecting the two generations' outlook on life, it seems to be the treasure of the town store.

Looking back on the changes of the industry over the years, although there are no ups and downs, there are inevitably ripples.

Mr Chua said that in the early years, dry food was a necessity for every family, and everyone was very optimistic about doing this business. "The necessities used to be very simple. I lived a relatively simple life with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea."

Unlike now, mobile phones and televisions have become new "necessities". Although dry food is still an indispensable daily commodity, it has not been valued as before.

At present, the main customers of Ah Pau come from restaurants, grocery stores, processing plants, dry food stalls in bazali and other businesses. People usually go to large supermarkets to buy, and rarely go to dry food stores to select carefully

However, Mr Chua believes that the value of seafood dry food industry is that if you need all kinds of ingredients to cook a big meal for the new year, customers will still come to the store to purchase.

For example, dried abalone, Cordyceps sinensis, Tricholoma matsutake and other precious ingredients are not sold in supermarkets. They still have to be supplied by seafood dry food stores.  

Learning the secret trade from his father

Mr Chua claimed that he was naughty and unruly when he was a child. His father was very strict with him. He was scolded when he talked to customers behind his back in the shop, and was scolded when he took a rest after moving goods. But his father's influence on him is unspeakable. He used to watch his father hawking and selling to customers in the wet market. When he grew up, he learned something and became eloquent. There are more than a dozen kinds of fish in the shop alone. Mr Chua has spent many years accumulating experience and experience. If customers ask whether the fish are used to cook soup, coconut milk rice or flour, he is happy to introduce them one by one. The most unforgettable thing for him is that he tried to order the wrong goods shortly after he took over the business, which led to the loss of revenue and greatly affected his confidence. His father said to him as if nothing had happened: "Losses are part and parcel of doing business. Mr Chua also revealed that in addition to the employees, the operation of the store was attributed to two women who were the most important in his life. Mdm Low Ah Lek, her mother, has devoted half her life to Ah Pau Chop. Now she is old and needs to walk with crutches, but Mr Chua still drives her to the shop every morning. Mr Chua and his wife Mdm Sylvia Low (53 years old) have been married for 25 years. The other half not only keeps the family affairs in order, but also helps manage the shop accounts. They are worthy of the name of a virtuous wife. Because of this, Ah Pau Chop has become a home for Mr Chua. The couple have three sons, 24, 23 and 21 respectively. They are still in college and have yet started working. But when it comes to succession, Mr Chua expresses no concern. In view of his experience in running away in those years, he knew that he could not force his sons to follow his father's footsteps, so he never deliberately encouraged his sons to takeover the store's business. "When the right time comes, it will come naturally.". Although the younger generation is generally not interested in the seafood dry food industry, Mr Chua said that Ah Pau Chop still has young employees in their 20s. As long as they are willing to learn and do, they will try their best to cultivate them.

No fear of competition, willing to speak out on the industry's behalf

Every shop sells similar goods. Isn't it difficult to compete for business? "But in our industry, the fiercer the competition, the more prosperous the business will be."

The Victoria Wholesale Centre is seven floors high, gathering at least 20 merchants, all of whom are mainly seafood dry food wholesalers, forming a benign competitive relationship.

Mr Chua shared that the business of merchants is to make profits, so they will actively strive for more customers. As the reputation spreads over time, they will attract more people to the wholesale center. "Therefore, it is difficult for this industry to survive independently. The fiercer the competition, the more prosperous the business will be. Of course, it is a good thing."

About 1999, when Mr Chua and experts received the notice of relocation, they had to negotiate with the relevant authorities in order to finalize the new site. Therefore, it was necessary to set up a business federation and elect representatives to give feedback as a collective voice.

Since this year, Mr Chua has served as the chairman of the Victoria Wholesale Centre Business Federation. Even if no one is willing to take over, he is willing to shoulder this responsibility.

During this period, many laymen expressed to him that they were not optimistic about the future development of the industry. He kept these words in mind and always firmly walked on his own path.

Mr Chua also remembered that in the early days of his career, he faced the greatest difficulty: to develop customers and connect with people. At that time, he spent a lot of effort to spread the net among stores to create a stable business foundation today.

As the chairman of the association, Mr Chua kept communicating with people to reach an ideal agreement between the two sides, whether it was looking for new venues, negotiating license applications, or discussing lease regulations.

Communication, in fact, is the basic condition for the survival of this industry. Every time you introduce different kinds of products to customers, it is the process of establishing human relations. No technology can replace it.

"Nothing is difficult nor easy." Mr Chua concluded that each era will have different challenges. No matter whether the market is good or bad, move forward steadily and keep pace with the times, you will never fall behind.

Source: Zaobao SG