If you want to find the freshest, lowest-priced seafood in Singapore, there’s no better place to look than the source itself. Jurong Fishery Port is mainly known for its B2B operations, which is why many people don’t realise it’s open to the public too.
Even if you’ve heard of it before, navigating the busy port can get confusing and overwhelming for first-timers. That’s where the Jurong Fishery Port Tour by Hidden Heritage Tours comes in – it takes you on a guided exploration of its history and inner workings, and shows you exactly how to purchase seafood like a pro.
Jurong Fishery Port is the largest wholesale port market and the only fishery port in Singapore after the closure of Senoko Fishery Port. Like how Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre is Singapore’s wholesale hub for fruits and vegetables, Jurong Fishery Port is the hub for the handling, processing, and distribution of seafood locally.
Almost all freshly caught and imported seafood that comes to Singapore is handled by the port market for distribution to wet markets, supermarkets, and restaurants, so you can expect the freshest seafood at affordable, wholesale prices here.
The port operates 24 hours a day, all year round, closing only on Monday mornings between 2am and 6am.
It usually gets the busiest on Fridays and Saturdays, especially during the wee hours between 2am and 5am, when fresh catches are offloaded, auctioned, and distributed to reach neighbourhood wet markets, hawker centres, and supermarkets before they open for the day.
If you’re coming here on your own to buy seafood, the best time to visit would be between 1am and 2am, when you’ll see all the seafood before they get snatched off the shelf, or buckets in this case, in bulk by retailers.
But if you’re not picky about quality and are okay with the leftovers, coming early in the morning after the port’s peak hours would be great too, because that’s when the fish sellers start throwing out discounts to clear their stock.
Happen to have Phua Chu Kang-style rubber boots lying around? Those are the perfect footwear choice when visiting the port.
The shoes we wore on the tour.
Otherwise, just put on a pair of non-slip, covered shoes when you leave your house. Ideally, go for waterproof ones that you don’t mind getting dirty, because the floor at the market is often slippery and wet. According to the dress code notice for port users, open footwear like slippers, sandals, and Crocs is not allowed for safety purposes.
Before you enter the area, you’ll need to register online via SFA’s Visitor Management System or through the kiosks at the security guardhouse. Make sure to have your identification, like your NRIC, work permit, passport, or Singpass app, ready for scanning at the entrance and exit.
If you’re planning to purchase seafood, a cooler bag will come in handy. Do bring along some cash as well, because many of the vendors collect payment the traditional way.
Find out more on the SFA website.
For an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at Jurong Fishery Port, consider signing up for the Jurong Fishery Port Tour by Hidden Heritage Tours.
Tickets go for $60/adult and $55/child, and the activity is SG Culture Pass eligible if you still have $100 worth of credits to burn.
The tour starts at 10.45pm and wraps up by 12.45am. Although that might sound late for those who are usually already in bed by then, this is when the market really wakes up – as mentioned, most of the action happens between 2am and 5am, so you’ll be there just in time to catch it.
Tours only run about twice a month, and each session is capped at 35 people, so you’ll want to book early as slots are limited.
The meeting point for the tour is at the canteen inside the port – you’ll need to pass through the security gates first before making your way there. We got a little lost, but here’s the key detail: it’s located to the right of the security gates, on the 1st floor of a building that might initially look like a dormitory or housing block.
At the canteen, we met Stanley, one of the founders of Hidden Heritage, as well as the tour guides-cum-fish experts, Ryan and Yi Xuan – who some of you might recognise from @facepalmfishing on YouTube.
We were also handed audio guides to wear, which made it easier to follow along and hear the tour guides clearly – especially helpful given the size of the group and how busy the area can get.
During the tour, you’ll learn the history of Jurong Fishery Port – like its “fishy” beginnings as a market more than a century ago, which was reportedly burnt down in a fire that some speculated was set to force fish vendors out.
One thing we appreciated about the tour guides was how they prioritised the group’s safety. Since the port is filled with forklifts and heavy vehicles zooming around, one of the guides would often go ahead first to scout out safe spots for us to stand before leading the group over.
The 1st stop on the tour was a look at where fish merchants operate from day to day. What initially looked like a housing block turned out to be the complex housing the fish merchants’ office units, where they handle admin work and take breaks between the early-morning action at the port.
That impression came from how homely the place looked, with fish merchants personalising their units like it was their 2nd home.
Peering in, most of the furniture looked like it belonged in a typical HDB living room.
Keep an eye out for items reminding you that you’re at a fishery port, like rubber boots at the doors and stacks of baskets to store fish, numbered so that fish merchants can identify their own.
Just remember to keep your volume down in this area, as some fish merchants might be napping inside.
You can also climb up 5 flights of stairs at the office building to get a nice lookout view of the whole port.
The Singapore Fish Merchants General Association is also located at the office building. It was set up to settle any internal conflicts between fish merchants, but is now used by the merchants to drink tea and play Chinese chess.
Another thing we noticed while touring the office building was that the car park was mostly filled with vehicles bearing Malaysian plates. The tour guides explained that many of the workers at the port are Malaysians, as selling fish is a dying trade in Singapore.
Much of the port looks like it has been preserved in time, with some very old-looking signs and facades. We even stopped by these vintage letterboxes that are still actively used by fish merchants for their mail and official documents. Now, it’s rare to come across letterboxes with this old design from the 70s as they have since been phased out.
If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can even poke at the metal flaps to hear that familiar clink – a repetitive sound many will remember from the days when flyer distributors would slot in mail at record speed.
Then we came across the storefront of Toko Rasek, which also looked like something out of the 20th century. It’s a shop that sells commercial supplies like styrofoam boxes to the fish merchants at the port.
The tour guides also shared some true crime stories, like a double murder that happened right at the office of Jurong Fishery Port. Hearing the story while standing at the actual site definitely sent chills down our spines, especially knowing that one of the perpetrators is still believed to be at large.
We won’t spoil too much here, but let’s just say you’ll want to hear this one in person on the tour itself.
Another tour stop was the shrine that was brought over from Senoko Fishery Port after it closed down. Here, Chinese fishermen pray to Mazu, the sea goddess, for protection before their fishing voyages. Business owners, on the other hand, pray to the Earth God, AKA Tu Di Gong, for business success.
No pictures are allowed here, so we didn’t manage to get a shot of the area. Our guides shared that the yellow ICA gate was constructed to enforce stricter border controls after the 9/11 attacks in the US. This gate leads out to a 400m-long wharf for docking, where the vessel crew can unload their catch.
You’ll be stunned by the sheer scale of operations here – each container can hold up to 120kg of seafood, and a mind-boggling amount of cargo containers passes through here daily.
Beyond the sea, much of the port’s seafood arrives via air or land. This includes seafood that has endured a 15-hour truck journey from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, while premium choices like salmon and cod are flown in.
Ice is a big part of the seafood business, helping to keep the produce fresh. At the port, you’ll see seafood buried in ice and packed into the mouths and stomachs of fish to maintain an even temperature from the inside out.
So it wasn’t surprising that the chilliest place in the port turned out to be the ice-crusher stall, where waves of cold air escape from towering blocks of ice – so huge that they were barely melting in Singapore’s heat and humidity.
You’ll see giant ice shaver machines used to grind the blocks down, alongside ice picks for hooking and dragging the heavy slabs around. The uncle running the stall was very kind to grind a new chunk of ice just for us to have a closer look.
The crux of the tour was the wholesale fish market where fish merchants sell seafood to retailers, wet market fishmongers, and caterers.
It felt like our day was ending, but for the fish merchants at the market, the day had just started. Over here, you’ll mostly see people weighing seafood, noting the stock, and sorting them into baskets based on species and size.
One of the highlights of the tour for us was walking the galleyway, or the bridge at the roof, used by SFA to have a birds-eye view of the whole market, ensuring that there is no “fishy” business going on. From above, we enjoyed unobstructed views of the market to people-watch and fish-spot.
The tour guides also pointed out and explained the roles of different people at the market. You’ll spot accountants perched on elevated wooden desks recording inventory and sales for each stall.
Interestingly, some fish merchants have even embraced the digital age, hiring people to do live-streaming sales right at their booths.
You might also catch migrant workers having heated bargaining moments with fish sellers, as well as other walk-in customers looking for a steal.
Seafood here is generally 10% to 15% cheaper than at your local market, though you should note that most busy fish merchants here won’t bother cleaning or gutting the fish for you.
With a laser pointer, the tour guides singled out different types of fish and explained how to differentiate those that look similar, so we don’t get scammed at wet markets.
Don’t be shocked that the fish merchants lay their seafood on the ground. Although it may seem unsanitary, your seafood still has to undergo cleaning and descaling before it ends up on your plate – after all, the fish come from the sea, which we can’t say is any cleaner than the floor.
We encountered everything from stingrays to cuttlefish, and even saw a big leopard ray with its head removed – this is a giant stingray you might find in aquariums.
Fishing enthusiasts might also find themselves stunned by the size of some of the fish here. We spotted a huge mackerel and heard that it’s really hard to catch one of such epic proportions in the wild.
The tour guides made the tour even more interesting by dishing out informative fish facts, such as which species tend to have higher mercury levels (not ideal for kids or pregnant women) and how different fishing methods affect quality. For example, trawling, which involves dragging a large net through the water behind boats, often leaves visible marks on the fish.
They also broke down the taste profiles, price ranges, and gave cooking tips for different types of fish, from steaming and grilling over an open fire to serving it up as fresh sashimi.
Later, our group headed down into the middle of the bustling market. Remember to watch your step as the ground can get slippery with puddles of water, and you might get a few splashes of fishy water as vendors wash their buckets and toss their seafood around.
From here, we could even feel the cool air brushing against our legs from all the ice, which made us wonder how the sellers could handle it so casually – sticking their hands in buckets of ice water and squatting there handling ice-cold seafood for so long.
With 130 market lots, we wouldn’t know where to start if we were to buy seafood alone. That’s why it helps having the tour guides around – they’ll recommend stalls that they usually buy from and those with discounts, so you can get the best prices. They’ll also point out vendors who can help with cleaning and cutting the fish, which makes the whole buying process a lot more convenient.
The tour ends back at the canteen, where you’ll find stalls like a caifan stall with its trays still full of ingredients – a rare sight at midnight compared to most other places around Singapore. These stalls usually cater to the fish merchants and their staff who work throughout the night.
Here’s a hack we found out from the tour: you can buy fish from the market and pass it to the chef in the canteen to cook for a fee.
We had a pleasant surprise when the tour guides presented the group with some calamari from the port, freshly fried in the canteen.
Do remember to return the audio guides before you leave. Once the guided portion wraps up, you’ll have a free and easy time to explore the area and make your seafood purchases.
One thing we were a little worried about was getting stranded at the port in the middle of the night, especially since it’s quite an ulu location and late at night. Fortunately, we managed to secure our private hire cars quite fairly quickly at 1am on a Saturday, but it’s worth noting that this may not always be the case.
The tour opened our eyes to a completely new side of Singapore, and we would definitely recommend that you check it out too, if you like exploring our country’s hidden heritage or are simply there for the fish. The next available tour date is on 19th June 2026.
One final tip: be prepared for your clothes, bags, and shoes to smell fishy by the end of the night – it’s all part of the authentic experience, and who knows, you might even find yourself becoming a bit of a cat magnet afterwards.
Price: $55/child | $60/adult
Meeting point: Canteen of Jurong Fishery Port
Upcoming tour dates: 19th June 2026
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Photography by Hui Wen Chan.
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