Birds' nest industry reaping profits in Malaysia

Birds' nest industry reaping profits in Malaysia

By George Francis MIRI - The edible birds' nests industry is growing in Malaysia and is currently the third largest producers in the world, after Indonesia and Thailand, said Malaysian director general of veterinary services department, Datuk Dr Abd Aziz Jamaluddin. He said the export value last year from Peninsula Malaysia alone was over RM1 billion excluding from Sabah and Sarawak, which the latter contributed at more than one RM100 million. The products are exported to Hong Kong, China, Japan and Korea, he said, adding, there were plans to penetrate the Middle East and European markets. "We want to go direct to China, a major consuming country rather than via Hong Kong; a question of bilateral trade ties here is yet to be overcomed," he told reporters after officiating at the 'Veterinary-Consumer Month' state level held here. He said the veterinary services department plays a leading role in the swiftlet farming industry, and hence a national conference on the industry had been proposed to be held this year. "It is a continuously lucrative industry with high prices at international markets so we want to advance the methodology of swiftlet farming and to mechanise the processing sector in the country," he said. As the industry continues to expand and grow, more and more supplies of edible birds' nests sourced from purpose-built farms that are constructed specially to house edible nests swiflets find their way into the supply chain. The industry needs restructuring, he said, to benefit more new players and villagers if they have the land in semi-urban or rural areas as of now it is mushrooming in the urban areas. The feeding habitat always develop more or less around urban areas' built-in-houses now instead of natural rural habitat. He said the industry has long illustrious history for the last 100 years in operation and mainly sourced from indigenous suppliers who collect the nests from caves, which are the natural habitat of edible nests swiflets.