SINGAPORE - Senoko Fishery Port is set to close by the end of the first quarter of 2024, with its merchants moving to Singapore’s only other fishing port in Jurong.

The move to Jurong Fishery Port will begin when construction work to revamp the facility, which began earlier in 2023, is complete. Speaking to The Straits Times, some merchants said they were told this will take place by end-March 2024.

The work includes building an annex to the current wholesale market block that will add 20 market lots to the existing 110 lots.

The annex will cater to Senoko merchants, said the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), which operates both fishery ports and announced in June 2020 that the two facilities will be consolidated.

The Senoko facility, which currently has about 25 merchants, began operations in 1997 as the purpose-built home base of Singapore’s fishing fleet.

Its end marks “another point in the gradual decline, if not the effective end, of capture fisheries in Singapore”, said S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) senior analyst Choo Ruizhi.

But the chapter was effectively closed on commercial fishing in Singapore’s waters about two years ago, when the last of the local fishing boats here were sold off by wholesaler Lian Yak Fish Merchant. The wholesaler business, which was started in 1955, had more than 10 boats when it moved to Senoko in 1997.

That was the year when fishermen and merchants moved from Punggol Fishing Port and Wholesale Fish Market to make way for the new town’s development.

Mr Daniel Pe, 43, chairman of the Punggol Fish Merchants Association, said between 100 and 200 local fishing vessels were around in 1997, dropping off their catch at Senoko’s 180m-long jetty.

Lian Yak’s third-generation owner, Mr Davidson Goh, 51, cited a lack of productive fishing grounds and rising operational costs, coupled with a lack of manpower to operate the boats during the Covid-19 pandemic, as reasons for selling the fishing boats.

RSIS’ Mr Choo, who researches marine fisheries and food security, noted that fishermen operating in Singapore’s coastal waters at one point supplied up to 30 per cent of local marine fish needs.

In the 1970s, he said, the Republic even invested in building a local deep-sea fishing fleet manned by Singaporeans.

The fleet was, however, given up due to lack of local interest and competition from international trawling fleets, said Mr Choo.

He added that in the 1980s, the importance of local capture fisheries waned as Singapore diversified its sources of marine fish internationally and began encouraging net-cage aquaculture.

“Both at a policy and a social level, there does not seem to be much interest in reviving industrial-scale fishing in Singapore,” he said.

“Recognising the dwindling stocks of wild-caught marine fish in regional seas, the focus has been on developing and refining high-tech aquaculture systems since the 1990s.”

In the absence of local catch, Senoko’s merchants now get their supplies from overseas sources such as Indonesia.

In 2020, about 4 per cent of Singapore’s total seafood imports were handled at Senoko port, while Jurong dealt with about 30 per cent.

Fresh catch from foreign vessels is dropped off at Jurong Fishery Port, and then taken to Senoko by lorries.

The Senoko merchants who tap this supply chain, such as Madam Annie Lee, 60, who runs Hai Soon Lian Hak, will hence save on some transport fees following the move.

She said fees for transporting seafood from Jurong to Senoko are about $10 to $12 per container, and this will drop to about $2 to $3 per container in Jurong, for forklift fees to take fish from merchant vessels to market lots. Each container holds about 100kg of seafood.

But the closure of the Senoko facility will negatively impact fishmongers – especially those operating in wet markers in the north and east of the island – who obtain their daily supplies there.

Mr Simon Loh, 60, a fishmonger of more than 30 years at a Bedok wet market, said he will have to spend an extra hour per day to get to and from Jurong Fishery Port following the move.

Other merchants that ST spoke to said it is probable that some fishmongers will retire when Senoko Fishery Port closes, as many are old and may prefer not to make the daily trip to Jurong.

Senoko’s merchants said time will tell if sales will be affected when they are co-located with those already operating in Jurong, given that the two wholesale markets have operated separately for more than five decades.

This traces back to the decades-old market in Kangkar, a village at the end of Upper Serangoon Road, which merchants upped stakes from and moved to Punggol in 1984 due to redevelopment of the area.

Mr Pe said he hopes it will be business as usual, as merchants would have established their own clientele over the years.

Following its closure, Senoko Fishery Port’s 3.24ha site – the size of 4½ football fields – will be returned to the state. Its future use is not known, and it is currently zoned for port use.

Further changes may lie ahead for the industry.

Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu told Parliament in January 2022 that a study on future infrastructure needs to support fresh food wholesale and distribution in Singapore was expected to be completed that year.

Asked about the study, SFA said it is working on long-term plans for the fresh food industry and will inform stakeholders about details in due course.