\nCanada.com,\u00a0Canada\u00a0– Jan 18, 2014
\nRandy Shore, Vancouver Sun
\nPublished:\u00a0Saturday, January 19, 2014
\nMETRO VANCOUVER \/ Bird’s nest is supposed to be good for your skin, your tongue and even your sex life. It is also the fuel for a string of daring robberies in Metro Vancouver.
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\nThree armed bandits wearing masks and ball caps confronted staff at a Chinese herbal medicine store in Richmond at 1:40 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and made off with a quantity of dried bird’s nest, which can sell for as much as $2,000 an ounce.
\nIt was the third robbery targeting bird’s nest in the past 12 months, according to Richmond RCMP.<\/p>\n
One adult and two youths were arrested Friday in connection with the latest robbery at Richmond’s Ming Heng Ginseng Dry Foods, said RCMP spokeswoman Nycki Basra.
\nThe Mounties have recommended charges of robbery against all three and one will face a charge of robbery with violence. No one was injured in the robbery.
\nRCMP are seeking more suspects related to the crimes and are investigating whether a criminal organization is behind the robbery, or robberies, and sale of stolen nests. RCMP do not know whether all three robberies were committed by the same group.
\nWitnesses said that the group brandished weapons, but it is not yet clear what kind. No gun-related charges have been recommended.
\nBasra said language barriers have slowed the investigation.
\nConsidered a gourmet delicacy with medicinal properties, the nests sell on local store shelves for $4,000 to $5,000 a kilo. The most expensive varieties go for as much as $1,500 to $2,000 an ounce, Basra said.
\nViolent armed robberies of bird’s nest brokers and retailers are not uncommon in Hong Kong and Malaysia.
\nTwo people were shot dead in Kuala Lumpur in a heist in 2002. In 2003, Hong Kong robbers tied up store staff and stole nests worth $75,000 Cdn.
\nHong Kong customs officials have also made several seizures of counterfeit bird’s nest products in recent years, valued at several million dollars. Large quantities of bird’s nest are routinely intercepted by customs agents as part of their fight against an international black market in the rare medicinal food.
\nMost Chinese herbalists in Metro Vancouver stock six to 12 different varieties of bird’s nest. The nests are made from dried layers of saliva produced by swiftlets, a small bird that lives in caves of Thailand and Malaysia. At the high end of the market, cave-harvested red-coloured nests (called “red blood”) cost up to $400 per tael (a Chinese ounce, about 38 grams). More common white nests harvested from commercial swiftlet barns can cost as little as $50 per tael.
\nThe health benefits claimed for bird’s nest vary with the herbalist consulted. Staff at one store on Vancouver’s Main Street claimed regular consumption of bird’s nest, which may be served as a silky soup or a sweetened dessert, makes you look younger. Staff at the next store said it would be good for the tongue.
\nMost people use bird’s nest for a clear complexion and “to sharpen the appetite of the old or the sick,” according to Raymond Pang of Hang Loon Herbal Products in Vancouver. But the high price means he only sees one or two customers a day for bird’s nest.
\nPharmacist Darwin Law said the nests do contain unusual proteins and enzymes that may improve health, but the benefits are mostly “mental.”
\n“People believe it will help them,” said Law, a western pharmacist who has practised in Chinatown for 39 years. “Most people eat bird’s nest to be big shots.”
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