Bird’s nest industry a lucrative industry

Posted on January 4, 2012, Wednesday

STANDARD BIRD HOUSE: Dr Adrian shows the standard structure of a bird house.

BINTULU: Bintulu has the potential to produce up to RM4 million worth of bird’s nest a month based on the average price of RM4,000 per kilogramme.

The figure could be bigger if the industry players could penetrate the China market.

“However, to do so, they must comply with strict regulations and have the necessary licence,” said assistant director of the State Agriculture Department (veterinary service) Dr Chia Pek Chin.

“Whether it goes to Singapore or Hong Kong the products would still end up in China, the biggest market,” he said of the bird’s nest, adding that the (bird’s nest) processors here had no licence issued by the state veterinary authority.

He said this at a talk on ‘Swiftlet farming’ here recently.

He said the licensing for swiftlet farming under the purview of the Forest Department was under the Sarawak Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998, Wildlife Commercial Farming Rules 2003 by Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) and Land and Survey Department.

The State Planning Authority would also give its approval before the Forest Department could grant the licence.

The market price of unprocessed nest is between RM4,000 and RM5,000 per kg while the price of processed nest is RM10,000 per kg.

According to Chia, operators were only allowed to operate in areas 16km away from populated areas in bigger towns and cities, 10km in smaller districts like Bau and Serian, and 5km from even smaller towns like Oya and Simunjan.

Chia said only 400 out of the over 4,000 operators in the state were licensed while 21 bird nest processing licences had been issued in the state, mostly in Kuching, Samarahan and Mukah divisions.

Meanwhile, senior veterinary officer Dr Adrian Susin Ambud said the bird’s nest industry was a high impact industry which gave very good income to the operators.

He also said the operators could apply for loans from Agro Bank to finance their projects through two schemes namely micro ESP-1 from RM10,000-RM30,000 and macro from RM10,000 to RM5 million.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/01/04/birds-nest-industry-a-lucrative-industry/#ixzz1iXH743LW