Brothers keep firewood, charcoal trade 'burning'
Story and pictures by K. Don Buddhadasa
IT was his native Hainanese dialect that landed a former teacher from China in the firewood and charcoal fuel business.
Sooi Booi Khim of Hainan, China, who came to Malaya in the late 1930s set up the business in Brick-fields in 1953 on a special request from a relative who ran a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.
Sooi’s eldest son Eddie Sooi Took Koon said the relative who found it difficult to get firewood and charcoal had asked Sooi to supply the materials to the restaurant.
"Speaking only in his native Hainanese with a smattering of Cantonese, my father managed to get business from restaurants which were mainly dominated by natives of Hainan island off the coast of mainland China," said Eddie, 34.
Eddie now manages the business with the help of his younger brother Took Seng, 28. Their father died in 1986.
Sooi had arrived in Malaya in the 1930s. The teacher from Hainan worked for a relative in a rubber estate in Johor before moving to Kuala Lumpur.
After working in his relative’s restaurant, he was urged to go into the fuel business.
Took Seng said his father’s business had flourished to be the largest such business in the country.
They get their charcoal from Kiang and Taiping and bakau wood from Klang.
In those days charcoal and firewood arrived by goods train at the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station and from there were transported to Brickfields by lorry.
Now forwarders transport the charcoal by road to Brickfields.
Theirs is not a retail but wholesale business and they deal directly with their clients.
Now their charcoal is packed neatly in plastic bags before being delivered to clients who are mostly hotel and restaurant owners.
Only a few people are still involved in the business as more households have switched to other types of fuel such as gas or electricity.
The younger generation is reluctant to venture into the business of their families as they do not see much prospect in doing so.
However Eddie and his brother, like a few others, are keeping the family business going since the death of the founders.
A rack of mangrove firewood costs $9. But they did not reveal the price of a 100kg bundle of charcoal because they said some unscrupulous dealers could try to undercut them.
Types of wood for charcoal
THE quality of charcoal varies depending on many factors, one of which is the quality of wood used, said Eddie Sooi Took Koon of Chop Heap Loong in Brick-fields which deals in firewood and charcoal.
Several types of wood are used in the production of charcoal — wood from marshland, dryland, forests and even pieces of unused sawn timber.
The quality also depends on the standard of workmanship. Felled trees designated for charcoal are "skinned" before being sawn into pieces.
The "skinning" process is important as it also determines the quality.
The wood is placed vertically in the smokehouse. Hot smoke and air are steadily fed into the smokehouse through an opening.
Holes at the top of the smokehouse enable the smoke to escape.
Source : New Straits Times, June 23, 1992
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