Expansion of swiftlet farming

Sukadana Journal

Housing Boom, if You’re a Bird

By JEFFERY DelVISCIO

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SUKADANA, Indonesia — Along the spine-jarring road that runs through this city on the South China Sea, in between the sparse, waterlogged shacks of corrugated aluminum and wood, colorful buildings have begun to sprout.

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Jeffery DelViscio/The New York Times

Buildings constructed to lure the edible-nest swiftlet have been popping up in Indonesia. The nests are used in soup.

 Electronic Bird Calls From Inside a Swiftlet House in Indonesia

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Jeffery DelViscio/The New York Times

The nests, on sale in Jakarta, are highly prized, and go for almost $1,000 a pound.

They tower over their low-slung surroundings with dollhouse facades, colored in baby blues, sunshine yellows and ruby reds. Sukadana, a small coastal city in western Borneo, is in the midst of a building boom. But the new houses are not for people. They are giant birdhouses playing an all-day siren call through booming speakers to a small bird whose edible nests — at almost $1,000 a pound — produce a broth that is highly prized, and highly priced, in China. 

“They actually look nicer than a lot of the real houses,” said Andrew Teixeira de Sousa, field director for the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, which is active in the nearby Gunung Palung National Park. “But that’s just because there’s a lot more money going into those buildings.” 

The bird — called, appropriately enough, the edible-nest swiftlet — makes its nest by regurgitating long strands of sticky saliva onto the wall of a cave or house, as the case may be. These strands harden into a woven cup, weighing on average about a third of an ounce, that provides a cradle for the birds’ young and hangs from the wall. 

Many Chinese believe that these hardened cups, when married with broth, bestow special health benefits. Some Web sites claim the nests can help fight disease, aid blood flow, strengthen the body, moisturize the skin and even help mothers recover their youthful figures more rapidly after childbirth. One company advises women to feed their babies nest fragments dissolved in milk to “give the infant a flexible mind.” 

Real or not, the supposed health benefits of the nests have allowed sellers to charge a premium price. Iskandar, a village official in Riam Berasap Jaya who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said a good quality nest that had the classical cup shape and was free of dirt and feathers could fetch $11 to $23. Mr. Iskandar, a former illegal logger, shares a property line with a swiftlet house; he has many friends involved in the trade and is saving up for one of his own. Since most of the forests in the area have been bought up by palm plantations, he says, the logging business is not what it once was. 

The edible bird’s nest has been in Indonesia for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the advent of the CD player that the boom really took off, said Lim Chan Koon, of the University of Malaysia, the co-author of “The Swiftlets of Borneo.” 

Before then, people would venture into caves to gather the nests. “Some wise guy thought of using playback of the swiftlets’ vocalization to lure them into purposely built structures imitating the cavelike environment,” he said. Once enticed inside, the swiftlets encounter an environment designed to keep them regurgitating comfortably. Small openings in the rear of the building allow them access but keep predators out. Holes allow air to circulate but keep crosswinds to a whisper. 

There are large bird feeders, and open-face water tanks provide bathing and drinking water. Misters keep the temperatures inside cool despite the blistering daytime heat. Getting started in swiftlet farming requires what is, for this part of the world, a significant amount of money. Mr. Iskandar said a medium-size three-story swiftlet house can cost about $16,000 — a prohibitive sum for many. 

Still, the houses keep going up. Almost every kink in the winding roads here reveals another. On some of the straighter stretches, the houses sit in clusters of threes and fours. In the early morning and evening when the birds return from foraging, the jostling around the entrances seems like an avian freeway exchange — a black roiling mass of thousands of birds, each entering and exiting faster than the human eye can track. And between the birds and the electronic calls, the chirping never stops. 

Economists estimate the total value of the nesting trade ranges anywhere from tens of millions of dollars to anyone’s guess. “The bird’s nest industry is in the informal sector of Indonesia’s economy that is difficult to estimate,” said Fauzi Ichsan, a senior economist with Standard Chartered Bank. 

But the unregulated industry is also raising concerns that Indonesian swiftlet farmers could be producing more than just nests. Indonesia is acutely sensitive to bird-related disease scares. Since 2003, H5N1, better known as the avian flu, has caused 146 deaths and fueled global fears of a pandemic, and the toll in Indonesia is the highest in the world, according to the World Health Organization. 

Some are concerned that the increasingly dense networks of swiftlet houses could create disease flight paths for the avian flu, threatening both the local bird populations and potentially humans, as well. Almost as worrisome are the large water tanks inside each house that provide prime breeding sites for mosquitoes that could carry dengue fever and malaria — two tropical diseases of particular concern in Borneo. 

The profusion of bird droppings that cover the buildings and the surrounding areas is also a concern. “When it’s dry, the wind will carry any particles and germs in it, possibly causing various respiratory diseases,” said Trisasi Lestari, a physician and researcher in the public health department of Gadjah Mada University.

But on the roads around Sukadana, potential health concerns seemed secondary, and swiftlet house owners seemed more concerned with the flightiness of the birds themselves. 

In Riam Berasap Jaya village, Budi sat in a sweltering room staring at a mostly blank closed-circuit television screen. A recording of bird calls screamed at high volume in the next room. It had been six months since his swiftlet house was finished, but only a few nests dotted the walls. Luck, Mr. Budi says, plays as great a role as preparation in swiftlet farming. You see, he said with a sigh, you can entice an edible-nest swiftlet to a birdhouse, but you can’t make it nest.

Mariamah Achmad contributed reporting from Ketapang, Indonesia.

RM10m invested in Kota Marudu swiftlet farming

Posted on July 8, 2011, Friday

Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili

KOTA MARUDU: Transformation of the Kota Marudu economy will continue to be driven by the agriculture sector through the adoption and infusion of modern crops and technologies, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili.

The Kota Marudu member of parliament said that the agriculture activities which would be the focus for Kota Marudu included oil palm, rubber, coconut, corn, vanilla and aquaculture, with new high technology crops and activities such as stevia cultivation and swiftlet farming.

Dr Ongkili added that based on studies by government agencies and the private sector, Kota Marudu had been found to be conducive for swiftlet farming. “Various investors from China have also come in to test the suitability of Kota Marudu to attract swiftlets to nest here. They found that the area is indeed suitable and swiftlet farming has already taken place in Kota Marudu in small and big scales,” he said.

At present, 43 participants from the e-kasih list of hardcore poor are undertaking swiftlet farming in the district to generate income. Each of them was allocated RM10,000 to build a swiftlet house.

Dr Ongkili also said that the Parliamentary Agriculture Development Council meeting which he chaired yesterday, also approved three swiftlet pilot projects for selected cooperatives to carry out in a bigger scale, with an allocation of RM20,000 each. He also said investment in swiftlet farming in Kota Marudu had surpassed the RM10 million mark, largely from the private sector, showing keen interest in the lucrative activity.

The council also discussed the possibility of setting up a processing centre for the bird nests which would assist in marketing the products to overseas market. On the cultivation of Stevia, 15 families from the constituency would be selected for the cultivation using seedlings successfully grown at the Agriculture Department’s nursery in Tuaran.

The 15 pilot farms will form the nursery for Stevia seedlings for Sabah. The initial trials with the Stevia variety were conducted in collaboration with PureCircle of London, the world’s leading producer of refined Stevia products. Stevia is planted as a sugar substitute and is a highly lucrative crop. Dr Ongkili also said that eco-tourism is the second main economic sector for Kota Marudu, particularly with the marine biodiversity of the Marudu Bay.

Trader accused of taking illegal deposits for bird’s nest cultivation

By NURBAITI HAMDAN
nurbaiti@thestar.com.my

SHAH ALAM: The owner of Golden Nest Properties International (M) Bhd pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here to taking deposits from the public to join an unlicensed investment scheme for bird’s nest cultivation. Datuk Wong Sen Chiew, 55, was charged under Section 366 (3) of the Companies Act that provides for a seven-year jail term or RM30,000 fine or both.

The offence was allegedly committed between Nov 28, 2008, and Oct 1, 2009. Wong was also slapped with 28 counts of money laundering amounting to RM975,580.61. He was accused of using the money to buy stocks and pay commission to sales agents at Golden Nest’s office in Jaya One, Jalan Universiti, here, and several banks in the Klang Valley between Dec 2, 2008, and Oct 1, 2009.

He was charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act and faces up to five years in jail or a fine of up to RM5mil or both. Wong pleaded not guilty to all charges before judge Aslam Zainuddin here yesterday. DPP Mohd Haziq Razali prosecuted for the 28 counts of money laundering while Companies Commission of Malaysia prosecuting officers Steve Chin and Liyana Amira Kamaludin prosecuted for the charge under the Companies Act.

Mohd Haziq offered bail at RM200,000 but this was objected to by defence counsel S. Prakash, who asked for RM50,000 instead. The court set bail at RM150,000 in one surety and fixed Aug 4 for mention.

Kelantan urged to standardise bird’s nest licence regulations

Posted on June 23, 2011, Thursday

KOTA BAHARU: The Kelantan Bird’s Nest Traders Association has urged the state government to standardise regulations of licences issued to swiftlet entrepreneurs which will allow the association to coordinate their activities statewide. Its president, Ooi Siong Hwa, said the non-uniformity in regulation could affect activities conducted for the development of the rapidly flourishing industry.

“The association currently found that bird’s nest licence issuance by local authorities in Kelantan was not standardised and resulted in stunted efforts for improvements,” he told reporters here yesterday. He said the move was also in line with the Veterinary Department’s guideline stating that bird’s nest entrepreneurs need to register with the department within the next three years, starting this year.

Entrepreneurs who failed to do so within the stipulated period cannot apply for a licence from their local authority, he added. For example, Oii said not all local authorities issued licences to bird’s nest entrepreneurs which resulted in many of them operating illegally.

He said of the 10 local authorities in Kelantan, only five district and municipal councils gave out such licences namely Kota Baharu, Kuala Krai, Tanah Merah, Gua Musang and Machang. “The licence requirements are also not standardised, including the fees charged,” he said. — Bernama