Located in the wet market section, the stall has two old-school electric coconut graters rattling away as they reduce the chunky coconut slices to tiny flecks. At the back, a large hydraulic press takes up much of the cramped space, extracting every drop from the grated coconut.
According to third-gen successor Lee Zhao Yuan, 27, coconut milk was largely squeezed by hand in the old days, as hydraulic presses like this were uncommon back then.
The family-run business processes around 300 coconuts to yield up to 100 litres of coconut milk a day. Zhao Yuan now hopes to keep the old-school trade alive by introducing it to a younger audience through social media.
“I decided to continue my family business because I understand how rare this trade is, and freshly squeezed coconut milk is extremely hard to find now in Singapore,” Zhao Yuan tells 8days.sg. “Seeing my ageing parents working is also one of the reasons [I want to help out].”
Grandfather started the business in the 1970s
Fortune Coconut was founded by Zhao Yuan’s late grandfather, Lee Hong Tang, in the 1970s. His father, Lee Siew Hiang, 63, took over in the early ’90s and moved the business to its current stall at MacPherson Market & Food Centre in the early 2000s.
According to Zhao Yuan, packaged ultra-high temperature (UHT) coconut milk was not widely available in the early noughties, and freshly pressed coconut milk was in high demand. “My dad saw that and started pressing fresh coconut milk daily for the MacPherson community,” says Zhao Yuan.
“When using fresh coconut milk, the fragrance is stronger”
But these days, most folks just reach for the pasteurised stuff at supermarkets. “Sometimes, people choose convenience,” he reasons.
“There’s a very big difference between using commercially packaged coconut milk and fresh coconut milk,” he says. “When using fresh coconut milk, the fragrance is stronger.”
Social media marketing helped double sales
Even before Zhao Yuan began marketing the family’s stall on social media, the business remained sustainable through its base of regular customers, whose combined orders can reach 30kg to 40kg a day.
However, his marketing efforts have since attracted new customers and boosted sales.
“Before I started [marketing the stall], sales were around $300 a day,” he says. “Now, on a good day, they can reach around $600 to $700.”
How fresh coconut milk is made
Every morning, mature Malayan Tall coconuts from Malaysia (with a brown husk and thicker flesh vs young green nuts with translucent meat) are washed and split in half. Their flesh is then ground and placed inside a coarse woven bag.
The bag goes into a $15K custom-made hydraulic press, where a circular plate pushes down the grated coconut to extract its rich milk. Each press yields four litres.
Photo: Fortune Coconut Whan Neng
Grated ‘white or brown’ flesh from $6.50 per kg
The stall sells two types of grated coconut flesh: white ($7/kg) and brown ($6.50/kg). White grated coconut has the brown skin attached to its flesh removed and is mainly used as a topping for desserts such as ondeh-ondeh.
For brown grated coconut, the outer layer is retained, which Zhao Yuan says produces more fragrant milk. It’s mainly used to extract coconut milk for both savoury dishes such as laksa and sweet ones like bubur cha cha.
Fresh coconut milk from $1.50
The stall’s coconut milk costs $7.50 per litre, with smaller quantities available at $1.50 for 200ml and $3.75 for 500ml.
Super short shelf life
The freshly pressed milk does not contain preservatives and is best consumed on the day of purchase or by the following day. Once the milk is used in a cooked item, Zhao Yuan recommends refrigerating the dish and consuming it within two to three days.
The grated coconut is similarly perishable — he recommends using it by the following day or freezing it for up to a week.
How does Zhao Yuan enjoy his family’s coconut milk? Well, the Gen Z way — he loves adding it to his overnight oats in place of regular milk for a richer kick. He also adds it to beverages such as tea.
Photo: Kim Choo Kueh Chang
Supplies coconut milk to F&B brands, including Kim Choo Kueh Chang
Most of Fortune Coconut’s customers are middle-aged and elderly home cooks living around MacPherson, though it also supplies the milk to hawker stalls, bakeries and restaurants, mainly in eastern Singapore.
Its customers include heritage brand Kim Choo Kueh Chang, which uses coconut milk for some of its rice dumplings, and Yhingthai Palace Restaurant, which adds it to its Thai curries. Slow Bakes bakery also uses Fortune Coconut’s milk to make kaya.
“We might not be the only stall in Singapore producing fresh coconut milk (there’s another one in Fengshan Market & Food Centre), but I might be the only third-generation [successor] producing content about it,” he says. “I hope to bring back nostalgic memories for older folks while introducing this fresh product to younger generations.”
Work at the stall begins at 4.30am daily
Zhao Yuan currently handles sales and marketing for Fortune Coconut but has not officially taken over its daily operations. He works mostly from home, coordinating online orders and managing the brand’s social media accounts. He visits the stall thrice a week to help out. He expects to take over the biz within the next five years, when his father retires.
A typical workday for Zhao Yuan’s father begins at 4.30am. He first washes and prepares the coconuts before fulfilling orders from regulars. From around 9am, he turns his attention to walk-in customers and finishes work at noon.
According to Zhao Yuan, hauling heavy coconuts and preparing them for grating are the most physically demanding aspects of the job. The hydraulic press is automated, compressing the grated coconut at the push of a button.
Photo: Zhao Yuan
Also a basketball coach
For now, Zhao Yuan’s main source of income is from his job at Scholar Basketball Academy, where he coaches children. He plans to switch to part-time coaching to focus more on the family business.
The 1.78m-tall former competitive player competed at Under-18 level for a Bukit Merah-based club and attended national team trials but was not selected. After a knee injury, he decided not to pursue competitive basketball further.
Any regrets? “I guess a part of me is sad. Basketball was a way for me to escape [my problems as a teen],” he shares.
He adds: “I never thought I would join the family business. [Back then], I wanted to do my own thing,” he says. “But I’m definitely happy to be part of it now.”
Zhao Yuan holds a Higher Nitec in Chemical Technology from ITE College East. Interestingly, before becoming a basketball coach, Zhao Yuan worked in operations and marketing at an ad agency, experience he now uses to promote the family business online.
He has a 32-year-old sister who works in tech sales and isn’t involved in the biz. However, she appeared in the social media video he produced for Fortune Coconut.
Plans to take family’s biz to the next level
So far, he has filmed and produced only one TikTok video for Fortune Coconut, alongside managing its other social media posts. The clip highlights the increasing rarity of freshly pressed coconut milk in an age of packaged versions, showing how the family’s coconut products are made. Its nostalgic angle helped the video gain traction online.
“My family recognised that I had the potential to market the business to a wider audience,” he says, referring to the video. “From there, I did not look back.”
Zhao Yuan hopes to eventually move coconut milk production into a central kitchen, though he does not have a concrete timeline or production target yet. He says the business must first build a sufficiently large and consistent customer base to justify the move.
Rather than extending the milk’s shelf life with preservatives, he hopes to supply more F&B clients and eventually develop other products incorporating fresh coconut milk.
“With digital marketing and new ways to reach people today, I want to see how far I can take this traditional family trade,” he says.
Recently engaged, Zhao Yuan hopes his future children will one day take over the family business, though he’ll leave the decision up to them. “Ultimately, each person must have a certain level of understanding and commitment if they wish to step into this trade,” he muses.
Fortune Coconut Whan Neng is located at #01-60, MacPherson Market & Food Centre, 89 Circuit Rd, S370089. Open daily 6am–11.40am. More info via Instagram and TikTok.
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