For the past two years, the
bird nest industry had been under siege. Though with the signing of the Naning
Protocol towards the end of 2012, till today none of the cleaned bird nests
from Malaysia has been cleared for export to China! The Protocol ignored and
neglected the larger community of growers who merely produce original raw bird
nests which are not included in the agreement. This community of growers
occupied 95% of the total production of bird nests in the country.
As a result of such exclusion
the raw bird nests could not find an avenue for its consumption thus resulting in
a serious glut that threatens to engulf the entire industry! This could mean a
total collapse becomes imminent! It also translate into an annual loss of
foreign exchange in the region of 2 billion ringgit!
The present scenario of
disaster for the bird best industry is the culmination of irresponsible acts of
scheming by individuals and groups in the industry with the collaboration and
assistance of the relevant departments and Ministry! They recommended to the
authorities both here and in China the self –obstructing RFID; the 30 ppm
nitric content and a host of other restrictive parameters for export of bird
nests when they were made central to the Protocol negotiations. Such foolhardy
acts of self imposition of terms that only a few could meet will eventually
mean the death of small household industry involved in bird nest processing!
What greater betrayal of duties by those who are entrusted with the
responsibility of safeguarding the industry participants than this!
In a recent China-Malaysia
inter-country bird nest meeting at Putrajaya, Chinese representatives brought
up the question as to why the raw bird nests have not been included in the
agenda for discussion. To cover his own neglect ,intended or otherwise, the
Minister immediately turned to the Director General of VHM for a fig leave and
announced that for Malaysians visiting China, each is allowed to hand carry 1 kg of bird nest
when they depart from our airport! Whether or not they will be allowed to bring
it into China is another question and the Minister made it clear that should
they be barred from crossing the border with the bird nests, it is none of his
responsibility!
Such is the attitude of our
Minister and entrusted government department head! It neither solves the
imminent collapse of the industry nor able to alleviate the hardship that these
growers face!
We, the Alliance of Edible
Bird Nest Growers Associations SeMalaysia, are a legitimately registered organization
representing various EBN growers associations throughout Malaysia including the
Bumiputra EBN associations. We represent more than 15 organisations in the
country. We are the rightful party to represent raw bird nest growers in
whatever future negotiations concerning its export and all other related
matters. We hereby call upon the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based
Industry to heed and give cognizance to our legal right to represent raw EBN
growers in the spirit of democracy. We urge them to include us as a party in
all future negotiations concerning the EBN industry This will help the industry
as a whole as the later community of growers need valid representation from
parties that could truly reflect their needs.
We are initiating a move to
visit various provinces of China in preparation for future collaboration in the
export and related activities of EBN. We hereby invite all interested parties
to sign up for these exploratory expeditions to China.
We wish to reiterate the
government of the day to listen to the voice of swiftlet farmers and the Industry
expedite the resolution of Raw Birdnest export to China.
Thank you.
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