WET MARKETS opened for business yesterday after a day off, and pork sellers immediately felt the effects of swine flu, as their customers shied away from buying pork in the mistaken belief they can catch the virus from eating the meat.

Mr Wong Kong Fatt, 43, who runs a stall in Bishan North, is usually sold out by noon. At 10am on Tuesday, after the morning crowds had thinned, he still had one third of 150kg of meat left.

VIDEO Hawkers hit due to swine flu (2:43)

He said: 'I can't do anything. Customers can always choose to buy chicken or fish as an alternative.'

At the Haig Road market, Mr Phung Swee Peow, 50, usually shutters his stall by 9.30am, having sold out 120kg of meat. But at 10am yesterday, his glass display case was still full of pork fillets, ribs and trotters.

The slow business seemed to affect only the wet markets. Supermarkets said they had not seen any impact on sales.

Pork sellers at wet markets in Tekka, Eunos Crescent, Haig Road and Bedok South say their meat comes from the Indonesian island of Pulau Bulan, and Australia.

They are prepared for sales to drop if the swine flu situation worsens. Mr Lin Hai Liang, 60, a pork seller at Eunos Crescent, said he would simply order less from his supplier if demand fell further.

Pork sellers have been through worse scares before. When the Nipah virus struck Malaysian pig farms in March 1999, the import of live pigs from Malaysia and Indonesia was banned for a month. There was no sale of fresh pork until another source from Pulau Bulan was found.

An old hand, who has been in the business in Tekka market for 32 years, said things would not get worse unless swine flu appeared here.

Mr E. C. Tan, 62, said: 'From my experience during the Nipah virus scare, people might stay away from pork, but it will be temporary.'

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.