We represent all
the bird nest farmers who are greatly disadvantaged from a ban imposed on the
export of Raw Unprocessed Bird Nests (RUBN) by the Ministry of Agriculture and
Agro-based Industries. We currently produce approximately 500 tons per year of
RUBN in the country valued at RM1.5 billion. 95% of our harvest could not be
exported since July last year and the crisis remains unresolved, prompting us
to bring this grave issue to our Parliament.
Below is a brief
recap of events that transpired since the RUBN ban last July:
Prior to 2008, Edible Bird’s Nest (EBN) may be exported from Malaysia with merely a Health Cert and an export permit from DVS for unlimited quantity of EBN whether RAW UNCLEAN NEST (RUN) or RAW CLEAN NEST (RCN) , be it by proper route of export or by way of hand carry or via air cargo. Most of the importing countries, except People Republic of China (PRC), accept our Health Cert as the only official document and Export Permit required.
The
PRC imposes heavy import duty on goods imported directly; therefore most of our
EBN is sold to importers in Hong Kong (a free port and transit centre) from
where they re-export the RUN into PRC. This constitutes 80% of our EBN sold to
Hong Kong which also serves as the transit centre for export of bird nests to
other parts of the world as well.
The 2008 ASEAN TRADE TREATY stipulates the trades between member countries are exempted from import duties. Nests imported into China are subjected to only 17% local sales tax. The documents required by China from exporting countries include only Health Cert, Export Permit and a Certificate of Origin or Country of Origin (COO) and a pre-approved import duty exemption permit from China.
The other documentations are the normal import and export declarations, airway bills and invoices.
In
2008, Avian Flu outbreak affected all ASEAN countries except Malaysia. All free
flow of livestock and their by-products in these countries were banned.
Malaysia remained the only country in ASEAN that enjoyed the export of EBN into
China without any restrictions.
In
2009, under ETP a budget of RM600 million was allocated to boost the export of 3
high valued added agro-based industries, namely Sea Weed Culture, Arowana
Dragon Fish Culture and Swiftlet Industry.
MOA
and DVS were tasked to actively help to groom these industries. Instead
numerous regulatory condition were enacted which required an array of permits
and licenses which seriously hindered the exports of such products resulting in
the decline and the failure of the industry concern.
The
introduction of Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) was one of the
examples. In January 2010 DVS introduced the 1GP (Garis Panduan) for our
swiftlet industry, which require processing plants to obtain various
certifications amongst which include HACCP, GMP, besides the certificates from
KKK and VHM.
This
is a classic example of local regulators largely ignorant of and not responsive
to the needs of the industry.
These
regulations served to obstruct and
impede the growth of homegrown cottage industry which is involved in
the cleaning of raw bird nests (RBN).
Traditionally
this sector of the industry provides employment to thousands of housewives and
part-timers who use their spare time to earn some supplementary income for
their families. They comprise small groups cleaning raw nest in the hall or
kitchen in between sending children to school or tuition. With the introduction
of GMP and HACCP which apply only to modern processing plants for canned and
bottled foodstuffs, it has effectively wiped
out our promising RUN cottage industry.
These
certifications are unnecessary and unreasonable for the cleansing process
merely removing visible impurities and fine feathers whilst the “cleaned” nest
remains a raw food product and requires further cleansing, soaking and cooking
before it may be consumed.
Imposing
GMP and HACCP will only deprive the livelihood of workers in this cottage
industry.
Currently,
the capacity of all the combined processing plants and cottage cleaning
industry is only 5% of the total RAW UNCLEAN NEST (RUN) harvested, whereas 95%
of the RUN remained unprocessed. Local processing costs twice to thrice as much
compare to Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China. Hence there is
little comparative advantage to invest in local processing facilities.
The
current restriction on direct RUN export to China will only worsen the glut of unprocessed
RUN creating huge stock overhang. Based on
40 tons of output per month of unprocessed RUN, it translates into revenue loss
of 120 million ringgit per month to the country.
The recent Nanning September 19
Protocol completely omitted 95 percent of critical upstream activities in which
raw unclean nests (RUN) face total export ban to China including Hong Kong ,
Macao, Taiwan and Japan. This issue must be immediately addressed and could
wait no longer. We hereby urge the government to solve our farmers’ plight and
miseries posthaste. We have families to feed,
financial commitments to meet from the loans we took from the banks and our
personal livelihood to take care of. We have gone without any income from the
bird nests we harvested since July last year and if any they were sold below
costs because of the oversupply arising out of the ban imposed by the MOA.
This has gone largely unnoticed and
even ignored by the Minister and Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based
Industries!
We vehemently urge that a
consultative council be set up to look into this matter as more than a million
peoples’ livelihoods are involved in this industry!
We do not have confidence in any of
the present Minister and Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based
Industries for it would appear they have a hand in initiating and prolonging this
crisis!
We want open consultation with all
industry players and not just the ones selected by the relevant Minister, as it
is done now.
We can greatly expand our industry if
the government lifts export restrictions to enable RUN to be directly and freely
traded with all countries under the WTO beside our traditional PRC market. This
will certainly go a long way towards fulfilling the Economic Transformation
Projects and our nation prosperity.
We call upon the Prime Minister to
act decisively now to allow free trade and export of RBN to all countries,
failing which we will continue to lose billions in revenue and foreign exchange
with situation further aggravated for the people in the trade.
We love our
industry and we love Malaysia.
SATU
MALAYSIA
Lim Lai Soon
Chairman
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