Malaysia, China To Finalise Lifting Of Bird's Nest Ban

MUKAH (Sarawak, Malaysia) Jan 16 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is now in the final stage of negotiations with China to lift the ban on the export of raw bird's nest to the republic. Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said agreement protocols had been signed by his ministry to enable the Veterinary Services Department to be entrusted by the country to evaluate bird's nest according to the set standard operating procedures (SOP) before they are exported. He expects a positive outcome from the negotiations in a few months’ time. The development however will not affect bird's nest operators of locally processed products which are highly sought after in China. "According to our statistics, 60 tonnes of processed bird's nests are exported annually but the total amount of bird's nest produced is almost 400 tonnes a year. “It means most of the commodity exported via third countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam and so on eventually land in China,” he said. Ahmad Shabery told reporters after visiting two bird's nest premises and a processing company here, added that the sales of bird's nest through middlemen caused local bird's nests to be sold at a lower price compared to the actual market price. China banned the import of all bird's nest products from Malaysia in July 2011 before removing the restriction on processed bird's nest in June last year. -- BERNAMA