Bird's nest farming: Sabah needs proper laws

Daily Express 14 Dec 09;

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah needs a proper set of laws and guidelines to regulate the fast-growing swiftlet nest farming industry.

Stating this, State Wildlife Department Director Dr Laurentius Nayan Ambu said presently there are no regulations to guide and monitor about 200 swiftlet houses in the State.

"So far, the local authorities especially Kota Kinabalu City Hall and Sandakan and Tawau Municipal Councils do not allow swiftlet nests to be cultivated in buildings or shoplots in urban and township areas.

"This is because their Building By-laws do not allow such establishments to be set up within their rating areas. But I see a lot of bird nest cultivation being carried out in buildings and shoplots here, in Beaufort, Tawau and Sandakan.

"That is why I advised the birdhouse operators cum owners to form an association so that things can be straightened out, including addressing the legal issues related to building and operating man-made birdhouses," he said.

Laurentius said this to Daily Express after delivering a talk on "Swiflet Farming" at a half-day seminar held at a hotel here recently.

Following the advice, the birdhouse owners have formed and registered an association called Sabah Swiftlet House & Bird's Nest Industry Association (Swifin), with Laurentius as its advisor and George Ng Aun Heng as president.

"Among the main objectives of setting up Swifin is to further explore the potential of the swiftlet nest farming industry, apart from disseminating information on good practices of the industry and assisting members to address their problems.

"I was also made to understand that Swifin is looking forward to paying a courtesy call to the State Government, particularly the Chief Minister, on the possibility of pursuing their aims as well as proposing certain laws to be formulated and framing proper guidelines for the birdhouse operators.

"Swifin will also have a dialogue with the Chief Minister on the lucrative economic opportunities that can be reaped from the industry," he said.

Laurentius also proposed that a state body or committee be formed to oversee the implementation of the industry and come up with the best guidelines and practices on swiftlet nest farming.

According to him, those keen to set up a swiftlet house needs to have a trading licence to enable the individual to apply for a farming licence from the Wildlife Department.

For a nest trader, he said, he or she needs to apply for a commercial trading licence from the department with an annual fee of RM100 per year.

For exporting bird nests, Laurentius said the department only charges RM5 per permit or consignment.

On the market price of the swiftlet nests, Laurentius, who also owns two birdhouses, said Indonesian nest traders are willing to buy for between RM7,000 and RM8,000 per kg for the raw nests from man-made birdhouses, while the cave nests are bought for between RM3,000 and RM5,000 per kg.

"The bird nests of Malaysia are popular because the nests harvested from man-made swiftlet houses take only 30 minutes to cook, unlike the cave nests which take three to four hours to cook.

"Normally the swiftlet nests in our country are exported to the peninsula, Singapore and Hong Kong. But now, we are looking at China that has a huge demand because they are the biggest consumers of the bird nests.

"Not only China but the demand for the bird nests are also spread in other countries where there are Chinese like Australia, New Zealand, and United States. And thus you can see the market for this industry is expanding," he said.

He added that normally the Chinese in Europe would buy from Hong Kong.

He said the droppings of the swiftlets in the birdhouses, which are a good fertiliser for orchids, could also be sold for RM50 to RM60 per kg.

Laurentius, who has been studying swiftlet nest farming for 25 years, refuted a misconception that swiftlets and their nests impose health hazards on the public with bird flu or the influenza H1N1 virus.

"The H1N1 or bird flu has no connection with the swiflet nests. In fact, studies have shown that there is no relationship between bird nests and the two fatal diseases.

"Swiftlets are aerial birds and they never go down to the ground or mix with other birds, unlike the water birds. Therefore, there is no incident of the swiftlets being the carrier of bird flu or the H1N1," he said.

Thus, Laurentius said the swiftlet nest farming is a viable venture that not only generates lucrative earnings to the operators but also contributes to the economic growth of the State and nation.