Singapore's 50th celebration - looking back at our trading roots

A 'pepper mountain' in my family warehouse

I never realized how special it was to grow up in a food paradise and to be part of a food family business.

As Singapore celebrates it's 50th birthday, I look back to my family business, Hiang Kie - a coffee and spice trading and retail company. The growth of the business mirrored Singapore's change from busy entrepot trading port to wealthy 'first world' city.

Yes, my family business was actually a small piece of the historic spice trade story. My grandfather, a Chinese Indonesian immigrant, started a coffee and spice trading company in 1936. Singapore's multiculturalism is taken for granted now but at that time, the Chinese stuck with the Chinese. My grandfather was one of the few Chinese who looked beyond race and started doing business with the Indians and the Malays. Later, Lee Kwan Yew's multicultural policies started to take root and this became the norm in Singapore.

I remember our family godown - stocked with gunnysacks filled with coffee and spice. I distinctively remember the earthy smells of gunnysack, green coffee, roasted coffee and pepper. I also remember the loyal and extremely fit and hardened workers transporting the gunnysacks onto the open lorries. A big salute to these pioneers.

The Hiang Kie warehouse was situated in one of the shophouses in the business district, near the Singapore river, where the bumboats would transport all manner of goods into the bustling growing city of Singapore. Later, as Singapore's land grew costly, we moved further out into the fringes into Genting Lane and Woodlands.

Transporting coffee beans

As Singapore developed in the 80s and 90s, the retail and lifestyle sector also flourished. My father started a chain of coffee retail shops called Coffee Club and we worked hard at developing Singapore's first gourmet coffee retail shops. I am proud to have worked with my family during this period, to shape a coffee retail concept from scratch, in Singapore. The coffee trading arm of the company also continued to grow and we were selling our coffee and spice to household names like Nestle and McCormick.

It is important not to forget that the identity of a typical Singaporean is also intertwined with being Southeast Asian. My family had Indonesian roots and my grandfather and father spoke Bahasa. During the Japanese war, my grandfather fled to Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, and my father was born in those hills.

Growing up, family holidays to Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and later Indochina made a mark on me. One of my most memorable family trips was a food trip in Vietnam. We toured the countryside, sampled the food and visited the coffee plantations in Dalat. (Vietnam is the second biggest exporter of coffee). I was also drawn to Indonesia, learnt to speak a little Bahasa as I traveled the islands and visited many towns.

As I traveled in Southeast Asia and made friends, it reinforced the deep linkages we had with our neighbors. I realized how important it was to understand, respect and love their culture.

Coffee plantations in Dalat

Sadly, we lost our family business during the Asian economic crisis. It was heartbreaking to watch a third generation family business quietly fizzle out. Although we lost our family business, it is interesting to see the name of Hiang Kie breathe a life of its own in Hong Kong and Vietnam. It is a testament of the influence Hiang Kie had in its heyday and how the name still makes a mark in business even though the original owners no longer operate in this space.

As Singapore celebrates its success, I hope the people of Singapore will always remember their humble roots, their kinship with their Southeast Asian neighbors and their unique heritage. Majullah Singapura!

This post is written by Juyi Ong, grandaughter of Ong Wai Soeij, founder of Hiang Kie Trading Company (1936)