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Swiftlet Populated Areas in the Asian Continent
Swiftlets (or Collocalia Fuciphaga) are predominantly found throughout the South East Asian region.
The demand for their nests as a food delicacy has been growing exponentially on global scale powered by the many affluent chinese communities living throughout the world.
The price of 1 kilogramme (about 80 to 100 nests depending on their size and weight) of unprocessed white birds nest obtained from commercial shop-lots that have been converted into swiftlet farming houses can fetch around USD$1,500.00.
Once these unprocessed nests are cleaned, processed, treated and packed, the same kilogramme can cost upwards of USD$4,000.00
The above yellow highlighted areas in Asia are the only places in the world where Swiftlets can be found. In Peninsular Malaysia, commercial farming of swiftlets in old shop-lots and commercial premises are popularly carried out in the states of Kedah, Penang, Perak, Kelantan and Terengganu.
Major Swiftlet Farming Towns in Northern Malaysia
The following are just some of the statistics of swiftlet farming houses in some of the towns in the above states as at middle of June 2014*:
1. Georgetown – 400+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
2. Nibong Tebal – 600+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
3. Taiping – 400+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
4. Setiawan – 800+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
5. Parit Buntar – 400+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
6. Alor Setar – 300+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
7. Kota Bahru – 400+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
8. Bukit Mertajam – 300+ shop houses converted into swiftlet farms
(Source: the Malaysian Swiftlet Farmers Association, June 05 Newsletter)
Throughout Malaysia, there is an estimated 10,000+ shop houses and commercial premises that have been converted into swiftlet farms in order to harvest edible birds nest from these swiftlets as at June 2014
Potential Swiftlet Yield per Converted Shop House
As a benchmark measure, every ONE (1) square foot of built-up area can comfortably yield one edible birds nest per 3 month period.
For example, a standard 20 feet by 70 feet 2 storey shop-house will have a built up area of 2800 square feet. This means that such a swiftlet farm can yield 2800 edible birds nest per 3 month period. For the entire calender year, such a farm will comfortably yield RM$672,000.00* worth of unprosessed edible birds nest that should be eagerly bought up by local birds nest traders for processing and export to China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
* 2800 nests per 3 months = 28 kilos per 3 months
Therefore, 1 year, the farm will yield 112 kilos (28 * 12/3)
112 * RM$6,000.00 = RM$672,000.00
The Steps Involved in Processing Edible Birds Nests
Processing bird’s nests is a long, tedious and labour-intensive process, which can be simplified into 4 steps:
Step 1: Soak the raw bird’s nests in plain water until they expand, then separate them into individual strands.
Step 2: Remove all the feathers from the edible nest-cement contents with a pair of forceps. This step is repeated until all the feathers are detached from the entire nest-cement.
Step 3: The nest-cement strands are then arranged into a mold.
Step 4: Finally, put the molded strands under the fans to dry.
Nutritional Value of Birds Nests
Edible bird’s nests are actually made up of mostly saliva produced by cave-nesting swiftlets. All swiftlets construct their nests with a glutinous nest-cement produced by a pair of large, lobed salivary glands under their tongue. It is this nest-cement that constitutes the raw material of bird’s nest soup and renders the nests of A. fuciphagus and A. maximus of commercial importance.
Edible bird’s nests are glycoprotein with properties of protein as well as of carbohydrate. Its composition resembles that of salivary mucin with a high residue content of 2.5 percent. It contains 10.3 percent nitrogen and 17.4 percent carbohydrate with traces of phosphorus, asernate, sulphur and vitamin B1. The energy value per 100g edible portions is 345 kilocalories. The total protein content is about 85 percent with 0.3 percent of fat. Other minerals present are calcium and iron.
Amino acids isolated from birds` nests consist of amide, humin, arginine, cystine, histidine and lysine. The total content of mono amino acids is about 6 percent. Recent studies in Hong Kong suggested that it might even be useful in the treatment of AIDS. Young Asian ladies are putting bird’s nests on their priority list in their budget to gain fair complexion and maintain youthfulness. Expecting mothers are also consuming bird’s nests for a healthy baby with perfect complexion. Bird’s Nests also help to strengthen immune systems and lungs for all age groups.
How to Recognize Fake Birds Nests
1. Swiftlets build edible nests from their saliva, which are formed into strands. These strands can be detached into layers when soaked in plain water. As a result, these strands will be of different lengths and sizes. Faked strands are too perfect to even tell a white lie.
2. Genuine bird’s nests will not melt in water easily when boiled for over 2 hours. Take seaweed or flour or any other stand-in in the history of faked bird’s nests, not only will they melt but evaporate in even less than an hour, .let alone last for 2 hours?
3. Genuine high quality bird’s nests should be able to expand to double its normal size after being soaked and cooked.
4. Genuine bird’s nests contain natural protein that emits a unique aroma of its own after being cooked unlike the typical aroma from normal food essence.
5. Fake red-nests or yellowish-nests have even-shining colour that can be the result of dye addictives. These dye addictives can easily dissolve when the bird’s nests are cooked.
