Seven Vietnamese businesses have been allowed to export bird’s nest products to China so far, said Tran Thi Thu Phuong, Head of the Office of International Cooperation and Communications of the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Phuong said since the first batch of Vietnamese bird’s nest products was exported to China in November last year, over 700 kg of bird’s nests have been exported to this market.

She advised businesses to register with the Department of Animal Health for licensing before engaging in exports.

Recently, the Hai Yen Nha Trang One Member Limited (The Hai Yen) has exported its first batch of bird’s nests to China by air.

CEO of The Hai Yen Tran Thanh Hai said the company has considered exporting bird’s nests to the Chinese market as its strategic goal.

To produce high-quality products, The Hai Yen has paid special attention to carefully selecting and developing resources of high-quality raw materials, applying advanced processing techniques to better the quality of products and preserve the best nutritional content of bird’s nests, she noted. 

China is the world largest bird’s nest consuming market with a demand of more than 300 tonnes per year, accounting for about 80% of the global consumption.

Chinese data showed that China imported 220 tonnes of bird’s nests in 2020, more than 300 tonnes in 2021 and 425 tonnes in 2022, mostly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and now Vietnam.

In Vietnam, swift farming for nests for commercial purposes is a new industry, which started in 2004 in southern provinces and has since developed rapidly over the last decade.

Currently, 42 out of 63 provinces engage in bird’s nest farming with over 22,000 bird’s nest houses. Vietnam’s annual bird’s nest output is about 150 tonnes worth over 600 million USD. With the effectiveness of the protocol with China, the bird’s nest industry has many opportunities for development.

To facilitate businesses’ bird’s nest exports, the Department of Animal Health has issued detailed guidelines on the registration process for exporting bird’s nests from Vietnam to China. It also issued guidelines and organised the supervision of disease prevention and food safety in accordance with regulations stated in the protocol.

VNA