The Red Market, which had been closed for over two years for renovation, reopens this morning after 118 stalls have moved back from a temporary wet market building.
The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) organised a media tour of the newly-renovated Red Market yesterday morning, briefing journalists about stallholders’ work on moving back and their final preparation work to sell fresh food there again.
The revamped Red Market has a total of 149 stalls, because of which 31 stalls are now still vacant there.
Unlike before, the revamped Red Market is now equipped with a central air-conditioning system, two lifts, and barrier-free facilities.
The Red Market, a listed building, temporarily closed in late March 2022 for renovation when its stalls were moved to a temporary wet market building located near the high-rise Patane Market Municipal Complex for continuous business operations. The government said at that time that a revamp of the Red Market was needed due to its ageing structure and facilities.
The Red Market’s renovation project got off the ground in May 2022.
The bureau announced early last month that the Red Market’s renovation had been completed. Since early this year, i.e., in the run-up to the scheduled completion of the Red Market’s renovation, the bureau had been carrying out various preparation tasks with the aim of enabling the stalls to move back smoothly.
The bureau arranged for the stallholders to relocate their equipment to the Red Market from the temporary building on Tuesday and yesterday.
The temporary Red Market had been operating until Tuesday night since late March 2022.
The bureau said early last month that 127 stalls were slated to move back to the Red Market from the temporary wet market building, but it said late last month that 124 stalls were scheduled to move back. An IAM statement on Monday last week only said that the bureau was arranging for “nearly 120 stalls” to move back.
Fewer stalls
When asked by the Post during yesterday’s media briefing about the exact number of stalls that have finally returned to the Red Market for business, Leong Cheok Man, who heads the bureau’s Hygiene Inspection Department, said that 118 stalls have now moved back to the Red Market.
Leong said that a number of stallholders who worked in the temporary Red Market have chosen not to continue running their business in the revamped Red Market, for different reasons such as new career planning or health reasons.
Leong also said that his bureau will only decide whether and when it will launch a public tender for the lease and operation of the 31 vacant stalls after assessing the 118 stalls’ business and operation situations.
Leong also said that his bureau will soon carry out thorough cleaning, disinfection, pest control and rodent eradication in the building that had been used as the temporary Red Market. He said that the government has not yet decided how to use the building in the future.
Previously, the building, which is located just a stone’s throw from the high-rise Patane Market Municipal Complex, was also used as a temporary wet market facility after the original Patane wet market was demolished for redevelopment about a decade ago. The current high-rise Patane Market Municipal Complex, situated where the old Patane wet market was located, came into service in March 2018.
The Red Market, officially known as Almirante Lacerda Market, is located on the corner of Avenida de Horta e Costa and Avenida do Almirante Lacerda.
The Red Market, which opened in 1936, was listed as a heritage site under the category of “buildings of architectural interest” in the 1990s. It is the only wet market building in Macau listed as a cultural heritage site.
New facilities
The renovation has improved the market’s lighting system and installed a central air-conditioning system and barrier-free lifts. In addition, the renovation has also enlarged the market’s public toilet facilities and increased the number of female toilet cubicles in relation to the male ones.
Grocery stalls, chilled product stalls, vegetable stalls, and stalls selling tofu and bean sprouts are located on the ground floor. Fish and seafood stalls are also on the ground floor, but on a height several stairs up, because of which a barrier-free platform lift has been installed for those with disabilities to move up the several steps.
Pork stalls and beef stalls are located on the first floor. Two lifts have been installed making it more convenient for shoppers to reach the first floor.
The old Red Market did not have air conditioning, nor a lift.
Leong also told reporters yesterday that “a high percentage” of the 118 operating stalls in the renovated Red Market are equipped with e-payment devices.
There was a total of 184 stalls – including 57 vacant ones – before the Red Market was renovated in 2022. The revamp has restructured the market’s internal layout because of which the number of stalls has been reduced to 149 – 118 of which are now operating, with 31 stalls still vacant.
The Municipal Affairs Bureau arranged for three senior representatives from three wet-market associations to talk to reporters during yesterday’s media briefing, all of whom said that the revamped Red Market with various new facilities including air conditioning will make it more comfortable for shoppers to buy fresh food, which can be expected to boost business there.
Leong Cheok Man, who heads the Municipal Affairs Bureau’s (IAM) Hygiene Inspection Department, talks to reporters on the ground floor of the renovated Red Market during yesterday’s media briefing.
A stallholder sets up his fish stall on the Red Market’s ground floor yesterday in preparation for its reopening today.
– Photos: Tony Wong
Four bank staff members assist a meat stallholder to install an e-payment device and platform, on the revamped Red Market’s first floor, near a lift.
