\n<\/p>\n
Most of Fortune Coconut\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s milk to make kaya.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might not be the only stall in Singapore producing fresh coconut milk (there\u2019s another one in Fengshan Market & Food Centre), but I might be the only third-generation [successor] producing content about it,\u201d he says. \u201cI hope to bring back nostalgic memories for older folks while introducing this fresh product to younger generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee 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\u2019s social media accounts. He visits the stall thrice a week to help out. He expects to take over the business within the next five years, when his father retires.<\/p>\n
A typical workday for Lee\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
According to Lee, 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.<\/p>\n
For now, Lee\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The 1.78m-tall former competitive player competed at the 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.<\/p>\n
Any regrets? \u201cI guess a part of me is sad. Basketball was a way for me to escape [my problems as a teen],\u201d he shares.<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cI never thought I would join the family business. [Back then], I wanted to do my own thing,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m definitely happy to be part of it now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Most of Fortune Coconut\u2019s customers are middle-aged and elderly home cooks living around MacPherson, though it also supplies the milk to hawker stalls, bakeries and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--EAcqCnG5--\/c_crop,h_1125,w_2000,x_0,y_50\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/03\/fortune_coconut_whan_neng_macpherson.jpg?itok=7JpydLOd","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1107,2913,9734,2929,2586,5153,29417,25571,375,29416],"class_list":["post-81926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-business","tag-coconut","tag-fortune","tag-freshly","tag-market","tag-milk","tag-neng","tag-pressed","tag-tiktok","tag-whan","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}