Malaysia swift to meet Asia's growing hunger for bird's nests
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To Asians, consuming bird's nests is no strange thing.
In fact, the practice is growing in popularity and outlets selling edible bird’s nests are sprouting all over the region.
Malaysia alone is expected to see the swiftlet farming industry contribute 4.5 billion ringgit (about Bt43.5 billion) to gross national income by 2020.
Producers like Swiftlet Eco Park Group are riding on the growing demand for edible bird’s nests.
Swiftlet Eco Park was launched in 2004 as a solution to the many illegal birdhouses in Perak, which townsfolk complained were dirty, smelly and noisy.
“People thought we were crazy because we were developing housing for birds when there was big demand for housing for people,” said managing director Loke Yeu Loong with a laugh. The bird park was a success. “It directed the swiftlets out of towns and the park started drawing tourists as well.
And it worked so well that other state governments came to study what we had built and wanted to work with us on joint ventures to build similar projects,” Loke said.
Swiftlet Eco Park currently has 14 projects in seven states and plans to build some 600 birdhouses, in line with the government’s target of 100,000 birdhouses by 2015.
Loke said swiftlet ranching started in Malaysia about 30 years ago when the birds started migrating from Indonesia to escape the slash-and-burn farming there.
Indonesia has a 100-year history of producing edible bird’s nest and is the largest producer, meeting about 78 per cent of global demand. Malaysia is the second-largest producer at about 10 per cent, followed by Thailand with 9 per cent.
