Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Association: Some of points in swiflet farming guidelines unfair Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/10/30/association-some-of-points in swiflet farming guidelines unfair

Sabah & Sarawak is facing the same problem as reported.

SANDAKAN: The Sabah Swiftlet Farming Association (SSFA) believes that some points of the 15 guidelines introduced by the Wildlife Department came abruptly and might have been overblown.

In a meeting between the Sabah Bird’s Nest Industry Association (Saba) and SSFA, both presidents, Datu Faisal Datu Bachtiyal and Yap Chen Guan briefed their members on the issue that might affect a large number of swiftlet farmers in Sabah.

About 50 farmers attended the meeting.There are currently over 4,000 swiftlet houses in Sabah, and according to Yap, 80 per cent of those houses are located within the restricted areas mentioned in the guidelines.
Both parties agreed that the two-year time frame to move swiftlet houses was too short and would result in losses for farmers, especially those who just stepped into the industry.

“Two years are too short. Many farmers have taken a 15-year loan for nurturing the swiftlets and harvesting their nests. These include houses in Sandakan municipality,” said Yap.

Yap and Faisal contended that swiftlet farming provides plenty of benefits to Sabah’s socio-economy and but the former felt that some points raised in the guidelines were an imposition rather than an outline for regulation.
Other issues such as bird house locations and recording of bird activities, which include death and population were also raised.

However, both parties felt that most of the guidelines were acceptable and Faisal believed an understanding between the government and swiftlet farmers is imperative and needed to work out a solution that will satisfy farmers and the government.

Mat Saha of Syarikat Gerak Borneo, Saba’s consultancy, said the issues had been discussed extensively and they came up with several suggestions to improve the guidelines.

“The government needs to be more flexible on this. They have to understand that some of us (in the industry) have been around for a long time. We also provide royalties to the government through taxes.
“As for the recording of birds, we leave it up to the government. We can open the industry to students for research. This will also benefit our socio-economy,” said Mat.

He added that the guidelines issue and those involving international trading would be brought up at a National Swiftlet Conference in Kuala Lumpur towards end of November which will be officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Meanwhile, a meeting between swiftlet farmer associations across Sabah will be held on Nov 1 in Kota Kinabalu to address the guidelines issue.


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/10/30/association-some-of-points-in-swiflet-farming-guidelines-unfair/#ixzz2AmaS6rDV

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Bird’s nest traders appeal for govt’s help

KUCHING: Perseketuan Persatuan Pedagang Sarang Burung Malaysia (PPPSBM), an association for bird’s nest farmers and traders, is concerned about the livelihood of natural cave swiftlet bird’s nest farmers, especially those in Sarawak.

The matter was raised following the fear that enforcement of wildlife conservation and control would greatly reduce the income of the farmers.
In sharing their plight when met yesterday, PPPSBM president Datuk Tok Teng Sai pointed out that they had to risk their lives every time they harvested the nests from walls of caves.

Thus, he appealed to the government to treat them like other farmers and fishermen who are entitled to special subsidies and hardship living allowances, and to consider their requests.

He pointed out that a memorandum had been forwarded to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, detailing the ‘touching’ stories of the affected farmers and their daily predicament whilst losing their income.

One of their requests, he said, was to be given a special subsidy for the purchase of raw materials for the swiftlets to grow and multiply faster to ensure a bounty harvest.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Birdnest Importers and Exporters Association chairman Liu Thian Leong said while natural cave bird’s nest faming was growing vigorously in Sarawak since the 1950s, in 1995 concerned scientists from United Nations initiated a ban on such farming because the number of cave swiftlets was diminishing.

Following the ban, he said the association was formed in 1996 to deal with issues related not only to the natural cave bird’s nest farmers but also that of traders, retailers, importers and exporters in the state.

He further said the association then organised a seminar on production of bird’s nest in Surabaya in collaboration with their Indonesian counterparts which attracted many observers from around the globe.

The seminar, Liu pointed out, opened their eyes to alternative bird’s nest farming in birdhouses.
“We were then totally unaware of the birdhouses but our trip to Surabaya has opened our eyes. Previously we thought everything should be natural.
“Then we visited Java and saw these birdhouses and we also learnt from them their farming method. From then on, the business became more transparent,” Liu said.

Indonesia went on to become the largest producer of bird’s nest in the world at 75 per cent, followed by Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
China is still the top importer of bird’s nest from these countries even though it had imposed stringent guideline on quality.

On the same issue, Tok said Malaysia is allowed to export raw or uncleaned bird’s nests to countries other than China while Europeans are not bird’s nest consumers.

Indonesia, he said, only exported processed or cleaned bird’s nest products to maintain their brand name as well as jobs at its numerous processing plants.

Tok said on the whole, the bird’s nest industry in Malaysia is a sunrise industry which is also related to tourism.

He said since the Tourism Ministry is targeting one million tourist arrivals from China next year, bird’s nest industry players should tap the opportunity from this event by increasing production and maintaining quality.

“We would like to make bird’s nests another trademark for Malaysia. So when tourists from China come, we want them to buy our bird’s nests,” said Tok.

Tok expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for mediating with China to lift the ban on the import of Malaysian bird’s nests.


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/10/25/birds-nest-traders-appeal-for-govts-help/#ixzz2AVRmsYDC

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

EBN Seminar in Malaysia

The Malaysian edible bird nest is a RM10.2 bil lion industry, which is ex- panding fast judging by
interests shown by new players
In addition, it is also imperative that health claims are substantiated with scientific find- ings to demonstrate the industry’s assurance that the product is both safe and nutritious.

Objectives of this seminar:
 To disseminate information on the current government’s schemes for sustaining the EBN industry
 To update the industry on relevant stan- dards and regulations pertaining to the farming, processing, and marketing or EBNs
 To elucidate export requirements, espe- cially to China’s market
 To deliberate important and pertinent is- sues of the EBN industry

Aerodramus maximus
in recent years.
On the other hand, this industry is also facing a challenging future, notably with the recent near banning by the Chinese government on the Malaysian edible bird nests amid claims of high nitrite content.

Considering the exposure it has gotten, it is important for all stakeholders in the EBN industry to ensure adherence to local and international standards; from farming practices to processing operations to sustain the business.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Nitrite in EBN can be reduce: Professor

According to Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine , Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Professor Dr. Saleha Abdul Aziz, nitrates or nitrites are chemical compounds consisting of oxygen and nitrogen content and a combination of various organic and inorganic compounds.

He said the nitrite content can be found around us like water and green plants in which can produce endogenously (with the substance in an organism or cell).
“In fact, nitrite is also sometimes used in other food products such as cheese production and cheese-based ingredients, raw meat and the processing and many more.

“It is also used in various food products to prevent growth of Clostridium botulinum bacteria and also as a preservative in the meat industry,” he said. He said this when presenting Issues paper EBN Nitrate in conjunction with Bird’s Nest Industry Transformation Seminar Malaysia: Challenges facing the New Standard by the Institute of Food Technology (MIFT) in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Thus, the presence of nitrite content in EBN is not something new and it can be reduced .

Clearly Dr. Saleha, nitrite content can be reduced by using a plain water rinse EBN regularly.

In fact, the heating process can also reduce nitrite content and the higher the temperature used, the more many of nitrite can be reduced.

However nitrite content can also vary among the raw materials (EBN), after the cleaning process and finished products (canned nest soup).

Content nitrite can also increase in EBN through the water used during the cleaning process as well as other factors.

So the issue of nitrite content in EBN is not an issue that should be brought up to lead the industry with the production of EBN severely affected countries.

In fact there are studies that show there are a number of food products in China is also identified as containing a relatively high nitrite content. It’s like orange vegetables by 20 milligrams per kilogram (mg / kg), fresh milk 0.4 mg / kg, but not forgetting mineral water of 01 mg / kg.

Thus not only the nitrite content found in the EBN even any food and water consumed by humans, what is clear the issue is only enlarged.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Deraman, Noraini (2012) Antioxidant studies of cave edible bird’s nest / Noraini Deraman. Other thesis, Universiti Teknologi MARA.

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is well known for its health enhancing effects such as antiaging, growth promoting and immune enhancing properties.

This study was performed with the aims to determine the antioxidant activities of cave EBN (Collocalia fuciphaga) and to evaluate the effect of pH (strong acid, mild acid, neutral, mild alkaline and strong alkaline) on the antioxidant activities of cave EBN.

The antioxidant activities were analysed by using two in-vitro chemical methods 1,1- diphenyl-2-pycrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavemging assay and Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. The cave EBN were extract using citric acid (mild acid), sodium citrate (mild alkaline), HCl (strong acid), NaOH (strong alkaline) and distilled water (neutral). These results indicated that the antioxidatives activities may be dependent on the pH of extraction.

The strong acid and strong alkaline extraction of EBN showed higher radical scavenging and reducing power ability. The DPPH and FRAP assay showed positive with strong correlation (r = 0.980). Based on this study, the EBN could be a potential source of natural antioxidants.

Friday, October 12, 2012

RFID is required for registration

Bird’s nest farmers and traders are advise not to dismantle the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) installed by the veterinary division of Agriculture Department.

According to Dr Humrawali Khan, the state’s veterinary authority, as many as 270 RFIDs had been installed by the veterinary division in swiftlet farms and bird’s nest processing factories statewide.

“The FRID is just a small gadget on the wall. It will not interfere with what is going on in the swiftlet farms and should not bother the farmers.

The veterinary division started to install the devices in bird’s nest farms and factories in Sarawak since late last year until April this year. The registration exercise will facilitate the issuance of export permit and veterinary health certificate for those who want to export their birdnest product.


According to him, in the agreement signed between China and Malaysia, the former still insisted on traceability of bird’s nests imported from Malaysia.

“In my opinion, China still insists on traceability of our bird’s nests while our traders and farmers are against it.
“However, I am yet to be briefed on the latest development with regards to bird nest trades,” he added.

There are about 4,000 swiftlet farms across Sarawak and more than 449 of them are licensed ones who have registered with Sarawak Forestry Department.

“There are 22 bird’s nest traders who are involved in processing bird’s nest and five bird’s nest related associations in Sarawak,” said Humrawali.


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/10/12/farmers-traders-at-liberty-to-remove-rfids/#ixzz298W3qbFH

Monday, October 1, 2012

Bird’s nests to head for China in December


LANGKAWI: The local bird's nest industry is set to soar again in December with the resumption of exports to China.

Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong said Malaysia hoped to resume the export of raw cleaned bird's nests in December.

“The country hopes to do this by the end of the year before working with China over the issue of raw uncleaned bird's nests.

“We will meet the Health Ministry to look into China's requirements for the traceability of bird's nests produced in Malaysia right from the farm,” he said after launching the First Regional Conference on Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation here yesterday.

A list of exporters for bird's nest would also need to be forwarded to China, added Chua.

“The arrangement is similar to durian exports, in that the fruits need to go through an audit by China's General Administration on Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

“The traceability issue is not confined to Malaysia. Any country that imports food will want some form of traceability,” he said.

Last week, it was announced that China had agreed to set aside the mandatory use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on bird's nests exported by Malaysian swiftlet farmers from the protocol of entry into the country.

With the removal of the mandatory use of RFID, swiftlet farmers can now use any of the three traceability systems recognised by the Government, which are the RFID, barcode and QR (quick response) code.

Some 250 tonnes of Malaysian bird's nests were exported to China before the country imposed a ban in July last year after finding high levels of nitrites.

On another matter, Chua said farmers should carry out sustainable good agricultural practices, involving the controlled use of pesticides, fertilisers and other chemicals, to ensure food security.