Indonesia to stop export of bird’s nest via Malaysia

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EXPORT PROTOCOL: Photo of dried bird’s nests at a shop off Port Klang. Indonesia can now directly export bird’s nest to China without having to go through a third party, following the signing of an export protocol between both countries.

JAKARTA: Indonesia can now directly export bird’s nest to China without having to go through a third party, namely Malaysia, following the signing of an export protocol between both countries.

“We can now export directly to China. A standard has been achieved between China and Indonesia and it now being discussed technically,” said Indonesia’s Agriculture Minister, Suswono.

He said on the Ministry’s website here yesterday that with the standard, there will be integrity between both parties and it will benefit Indonesia from the aspect of the sales price.

“As you know, prior to this deal, there was no special arrangement on the export of the bird’s nest.

“As such, there were some parties who took advantage of the loophole, to improperly export and without any quality assurance,” Suswono added.

He said all this while, the bird’s nest was being sold via Malaysia at a very low price and to the point of causing an economic loss.

The bird’s nest sold to Malaysia cost only five million rupiah a kilogramme, while the price in China was as high as 37 million rupiah a kilogramme.

Indonesia has at present the potential to produce 400,000 tonnes of bird’s nest annually from its various districts like Lumajang and Gresik. — Bernama