Nonya Empire was established in 2020, during the COVID-19 period. Public accounts of the brand’s early development describe it as a Singapore brand that emerged from Chuan Hong Seng, a Singapore-based food business.2

The brand subsequently developed a broad range of packaged food products, moving beyond traditional pantry staples into ready-to-eat and snack categories. Its products are sold through online marketplaces as well as Singapore’s retail and grocery channels.

Nonya Empire’s corporate materials describe the company as a custodian of Peranakan culinary heritage, with the objective of bringing traditional Nyonya flavours to consumers in Singapore and overseas. The company’s description specifically highlights the fusion of Chinese and Malay influences characteristic of Peranakan cuisine.3

The central idea behind Nonya Empire is the combination of heritage food culture and modern convenience.

The brand describes its products as being inspired by the culinary traditions of the Peranakan community, whose cuisine developed through the interaction of Chinese, Malay, and wider Southeast Asian food traditions. Rather than presenting Nyonya food solely as restaurant cuisine, Nonya Empire packages elements of that flavour profile into everyday grocery products such as spices, sambal, fried aromatics, sauces, and snacks.4

Its own brand statement uses the idea of “Taste of heritage”, portraying its products as a way of preserving culinary traditions while making them accessible to contemporary consumers.

Nonya Empire has a relatively extensive product portfolio. Current and recent listings show products across several categories.

Condiments and sauces

Among its better-known products are:

• Fried shallots
• Fried garlic
• Fried onion in oil
• XO chilli sauce
• Crispy prawn chilli sauce
• Spicy shrimp paste
• Dried shrimp chilli
• Sambal products
• Sambal ikan bilis
• Sambal petai
• Sambal hijau
• Other spice and chilli-based condiments

These products reflect the brand’s emphasis on strong Southeast Asian flavour profiles and pantry ingredients.

Herbs and spices

Nonya Empire also sells a variety of cooking ingredients, including:

• Herbs and spices
• White pepper
• Garlic powder
• Other seasoning products
• Curry-related spices
• Cinnamon and other garnishing ingredients

Its catalogue therefore extends beyond specifically Nyonya products into more general Southeast Asian cooking staples.4

Dried foods and staples

The brand’s range includes:

• Rice vermicelli / bee hoon
• Instant noodles
• Pearl barley
• Gula Melaka / coconut sugar
• Salted mackerel
• Other dried ingredients

Rice vermicelli carrying the Nonya Empire brand has also appeared in Singapore supermarket catalogues, indicating that the brand has been present in mainstream grocery distribution rather than being limited to online sales.

Snacks

One of Nonya Empire’s more visible categories is snacks.

Products currently associated with the brand include:

• Shrimp rolls
• Extra-spicy shrimp rolls
• Nori seaweed shrimp rolls
• Samosa
• Spicy cuttlefish
• Fried silver fish
• Crispy anchovy products
• Fried peanuts

The brand’s shrimp roll products are particularly prominent on its online marketplace listings.5

Some Nonya Empire snack products are also available through FairPrice, including chicken-flavoured and other samosa variants. FairPrice’s listing identifies the chicken-flavour samosa as originating from Indonesia.6

Nonya Empire is closely associated with Chuan Hong Seng Pte Ltd, a Singapore food company involved in food products including condiments, sauces, and snacks.

The Singapore Food Manufacturers’ Association lists Chuan Hong Seng as a manufacturer of shrimp-roll snacks and identifies Nonya Empire products among its product portfolio. The listing also categorises the company under beverages, condiments and sauces, and snacks and confectionery.

This connection is significant because it helps explain Nonya Empire’s positioning as a packaged-food brand rather than a restaurant chain.

Nonya Empire has developed a presence across Singapore’s grocery and e-commerce ecosystem.

The brand has also appeared in promotional catalogues from major Singapore retailers such as Giant and Sheng Siong, while FairPrice carries selected Nonya Empire products.

This gives Nonya Empire a distribution model combining:

• Online direct-to-consumer sales
• Supermarket retail
• Wholesale distribution
• Food-service and trade channels

Nonya Empire’s positioning can broadly be described as heritage-inspired Southeast Asian food made accessible through modern packaged products.

Its branding draws heavily on ideas such as:

• Peranakan heritage
• Nyonya cuisine
• Traditional recipes and flavours
• Chinese-Malay culinary fusion
• Singapore’s multicultural food identity
• Convenience
• Affordable everyday cooking
• Sharing traditional flavours with a wider audience

The company explicitly describes its mission in terms of preserving Peranakan culinary culture and allowing consumers to experience traditional flavours without necessarily having to prepare the food entirely from scratch.

The word “Nonya”—also commonly written Nyonya—refers to the female cultural identity within the historical Peranakan Chinese community, while “Nyonya cuisine” generally refers to the distinctive culinary tradition associated with Peranakan culture.

Peranakan food developed from the interaction of Chinese traditions with Malay and other Southeast Asian influences. This is reflected in the extensive use of spices, chillies, herbs, aromatics, coconut, fermented ingredients, and other regional ingredients.4

Nonya Empire uses this culinary heritage as a major part of its brand identity. Importantly, however, not every product in its catalogue is exclusively or traditionally Nyonya. Its range also includes general Asian pantry products such as vermicelli, pepper, fried garlic, noodles, snacks, and other ingredients.

Therefore, it is more accurate to describe Nonya Empire as a heritage-inspired Southeast Asian food brand with a strong Peranakan/Nyonya identity, rather than a company exclusively producing traditional Nyonya dishes.

A recurring theme in Nonya Empire’s official corporate description is the concept of food as a means of preserving cultural memory.

The company states that its products are intended to offer consumers not simply food products, but an experience connected with history and culture. Its stated vision is to allow consumers in Singapore and abroad to experience Nyonya flavours and the broader heritage associated with Peranakan cuisine.5

This gives the brand a positioning somewhere between a mainstream FMCG food company and a heritage-food brand.

Although many individual products may have different countries of origin or manufacturing arrangements, Nonya Empire itself is a Singapore-registered company and Singapore food brand. Its corporate materials identify its Singapore address, and third-party accounts of its development likewise describe it as a Singapore brand.

The brand therefore fits into Singapore’s broader food landscape in which local companies commercialise traditional Southeast Asian flavours in packaged formats for both domestic consumption and international markets.

Its corporate material also identifies an Instagram presence under @nonyaempire.sg.

Company-registration details are based on publicly available Singapore business records, while the brand positioning and heritage description come from Enterprise Singapore’s published profile of Nonya Empire.7

1. Nonya Empire Pte Ltd
2. NONYA EMPIRE PTE. LTD. (202018451K) – Wholesale trade of a variety of goods without a dominant product – Singapore…
3. NONYA EMPIRE PTE. LTD. (202018451K) – Singapore Company
4. Peranakan Chinese
5. Mardahati Nabila – NONYA EMPIRE – SNACKS
6. Nonya Empire Samosa – Chicken Flavour
7. NONYA EMPIRE PTE. LTD. – Profile, contacts and insights