Indeed, that was the case for fruit seller Soon Sze Han, 46, who logged such punishing hours at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market.

'Any woman will be scared off by my working hours,' said the 46-year-old.

But he was keen to get married. Three years ago, Mr Soon, who had never dated, walked into a matchmaking agency to explore the possibility.

Of the three Vietnamese women he met there, he picked one who is from a village in Ho Chi Minh City. Aged 25, she was 18 years his junior.

'She was the oldest there already. I walked by and she winked at me,' he said.

They married in December 2006 and now live in a three-room flat in Chinatown with his parents.

Matchmaking agencies said marriages are common between couples where there is a big age gap. More proof of such unions has come from the National Population Secretariat (NPS).

Last week, it revealed that marriages between men above 40 and non-Singaporean women have doubled from 18 per cent in 1998 to 35 per cent last year (2008).

Of these marriages, four-fifths of the brides are aged under 40. Over 90 per cent of them are from Asia, though the NPS did not specify the countries.

In the last few years, the mushrooming of matchmaking agencies has brought an influx of brides from Vietnam and China.

Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Sunday Times.