Opportunity to export official bird's nest

Bird nest breeding facility in Dinh Quan district. Photo: Phan Anh

Previously, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Circular No. 10/2022/TT-BNN-PTNT amending and supplementing a number of articles on slaughter control and veterinary hygiene inspection, effective from the end of October 2022. This Circular adds bird's nest products that are subject to veterinary hygiene and food safety supervision, contributing to controlling the quality of bird's nests to meet export requirements.

Manage the farming facility

In the past, bird nest farming developed spontaneously, and there were no specific regulations for the construction of swiftlet houses, so there was a situation of swiftlet raising in houses and swiftlet houses near residential areas. residences, schools... The use of sound by bird nesters to lure swiftlets around the clock affects the community's activities.

Currently, investment and breeding activities for this wild bird are gradually being strictly controlled when the Law on Livestock takes effect. Mr. Nguyen Truong Giang, Director of Dong Nai Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sub-Department, said that at the provincial level, Resolution No. 03/2021/NQ-HDND dated July 30, 2021 of the Provincial People's Council clearly stipulates the area where no breeding is allowed; bird nest breeding area; support policy when moving livestock production out of areas where livestock are not allowed in Dong Nai province. Particularly in the field of animal husbandry and epidemiology, Dong Nai Sub-Department of Livestock - Veterinary Medicine still regularly checks on veterinary hygiene and disease safety of swiftlet farming establishments. The veterinary sector will also develop a plan to carry out the sampling for testing criteria of microbial contamination and analysis of toxic residues in bird's nest products at the swiftlet raising facilities according to regulations. new by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Trang, owner of Hai Trieu Salanganes'Nest Facility (in Song Trau commune, Trang Bom district) shared that after a while, swiftlet farming facilities have been massively invested in the province. The bird nest house in Dong Nai was quite saturated. Most of the bird nest breeding establishments in the province are expanding their investment in new lands and they all give priority to unspoiled areas, not densely populated. Among them is the reason that the investment in new bird nest farming facilities has been tightened and managed. According to Ms. Trang: “The new regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on supervision of veterinary hygiene and food safety at bird nest breeding establishments are beneficial to farmers. Because of the fact, the functional sector has organized to take samples of the establishment's bird's nest to test the criteria of microbial contamination and analyze toxic residues, the establishment's products are all qualified.

Bird's nest farmers look forward to support

According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Protocol to export bird's nests to China includes 16 articles on regulations for bird nest breeders, bird nest processing and export enterprises with many requirements on quarantine, inspection, disease surveillance and food safety, packaging, labeling...

For bird nest farming establishments, must register with the competent authority and send the list book for the General Administration of Customs of China; must be monitored by veterinary authorities for avian influenza and Newcastle disease. Breeding establishments must have books to record the diary raising and harvesting of swiftlets; must be controlled by the veterinary authority during the process of harvesting and transporting the nests to the processing enterprise.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are currently over 22,000 bird nest houses in the country. The output of Vietnam's oats is about 120 tons, worth over 500 million USD. Vietnam's bird's nest industry has many development opportunities and potential to bring high economic value. Dong Nai alone currently has 933 swiftlet farming households with 1,002 swiftlet houses; concentrated in the districts of Trang Bom, Xuan Loc, Tan Phu, Dinh Quan and Long Khanh city.

During the past years, most of the bird nest farming establishments in the province have harvested the nests themselves, preliminarily processed them and sold them to the market. Most of the raw bird's nests are sold to traders by swiftlet farming establishments at much lower prices than pre-processed and processed products. Consumption price of raw bird's nest products is often unstable because it depends on traders.

Participating in official export to the large Chinese market is very interested by establishments and enterprises raising and processing bird's nests in Dong Nai province. However, with the current small-scale livestock production and production, businesses and establishments face many difficulties to meet both standards and supply scale for the export market. Enterprises and bird nest farming establishments wish that the bird's nest farming associations in the province as well as in the whole country would be the bridge linking the swiftlet raising establishments in order to build a value chain of Vietnam's bird's nest to meet the export market standards.

According to the bird nest raising households, after the planning of the breeding area, the investment in bird nest houses and nesting establishments is more tightly managed, so the investment in bird nest houses is no longer as massive as a few years ago. The bird nest breeding establishments are also gradually following the professional and methodical direction, not in the spontaneous direction.
 
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has also sent an official letter to the localities requesting to review, evaluate and issue codes for satisfactory bird nest breeders; building an information management system and a database of local swiftlet farming in service of traceability; at the same time, proactively organize monitoring and sampling to prove that there are no diseases on the bird nest, thereby ensuring food safety during production and processing.