128kg Wild Grouper Sold Out Within 20 Minutes at NEX FairPrice

With Chinese New Year approaching and everyone saying “年年有余” (”nian nian you yu” *refer below), the higher entities have truly listened, gifting us Singaporeans with a massive Wild Grouper that weighed a record-breaking 128.4kg.

Image: Facebook (@NTUC FairPrice)

Sadly, the fish did not last for an entire year; instead, it was sold out in just 20 minutes.

What The Fish?

On 18 January 2025, a 128.4kg Wild Giant Grouper with an approximate length of 2 metres was filleted live at FairPrice Xtra in NEX shopping mall.

According to Mothership, the Grouper was caught in waters off Indonesia.

Despite its weight, the Grouper, fortunately, did not break any of the FairPrice staff’s backs while they were moving it to the live cutting station.

However, it did break the record of the largest and heaviest Grouper sold at a FairPrice.

Image: Facebook (@NTUC FairPrice)

Like typical Singaporeans, a huge crowd of shoppers gathered around the Giant Grouper as it was being filleted, whipping out their phones to capture this awe-inspiring moment.

Image: Lianhe Zaobao

After all, it’s not everyday that we can witness a fish that usually has the approximate length of our forearms being “magnified” to longer than our entire height.

Money Fly

Three to four cutters were required to de-gut and fillet the grouper. The filleted pieces were priced at S$6.99 per 100g, which is almost double the cost of a regular red grouper.

Image: Facebook (@NTUC FairPrice)

However, the price evidently did not deter any shoppers from purchasing it, seeing how the fish fillets were sold out in 20 minutes.

According to interviews conducted by Lianhe Zaobao on site, several shoppers were willing to fork out a larger amount of money to purchase the fish, out of curiosity.

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, a FairPrice representative said that such Giant Grouper are only caught one to three times a year, and its availability is highly dependent on the weather and tides at sea, thus its significantly steeper price.

Call me uncultured and stingy, but fish is fish, so I’m sticking to the cheaper frozen Tilapia fillets.

Either ways, let’s hope that this New Year’s catch does indeed signify incoming abundance in 2025!

*”nian nian you yu” is an auspicious saying, wishing one abundance for the rest of the year; it is also frequently made into a pun, as “yu” can also mean “fish” ie wishing you lots of fish for the rest of the year