JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): Three Indonesian ministers sent off a ship carrying Rp9.9 billion (US$686,113.47) worth of swiftlet’s nests to China last week as part of Indonesia’s efforts to boost exports of the product to the world’s second-largest economy.
Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, one of the three ministers present, said the government would focus particularly on promoting swiftlet’s nest exports because China did not have an import quota on the product.
China imposes import quotas on many commodities, such as coal, oil, wheat, rice and corn. The agriculture minister was accompanied by the trade minister and the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) minister.
“The market is wide open, and we have the production capacity, ” said the minister in a statement on March 13, a day after the ship departed from Teluk Lamong Terminal in Gresik, East Java.
The statement noted that East Java had 84 houses that produced the nests and had nine processing plants that cleaned and packaged the nests.
Indonesia’s bird’s nest exports to China nearly doubled last year, rising 90.24 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to $416.76 million, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data shows.
By volume, exports rose a steeper 104.15 per cent yoy to 263,518 kilograms. China’s swiftlet’s nest demand has been driven by its rising popularity as a health food.
The nests are commonly consumed in a soup, and Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia often buy them.
BPS data also shows that China is the top buyer of Indonesian swiftlet’s nests. The country bought 77.1 per cent of Indonesia’s bird’s nest exports last year. Other big buyers are Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States.
China’s General Administration of Customs imposes strict hygiene standards on imported bird nests, noted Agriculture Quarantine Agency head Ali Jamil.
“It is easy in principle, as long as it is not dirty, meaning that it has been processed first, ” said Jamil.
China reopened its doors to Indonesian bird nests in 2015 after a five year ban arising from health and safety concerns over the product.
Indonesian exporters had been relying on third-party countries to sell the nests to China until government-to-government talks resulted in a deal to lift the ban.
“We hope the government continues supporting [the trade] and helping with market access, ” said Agra Soeharsa, director at bird's nest producer PT Surya Aviesta.
Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi brought bird’s nest exports to the public’s attention during a virtual ministry event on Jan 14. He said some three quarters of China's edible bird's nest imports came from Indonesia.
“This product is not seen in our trade balance because its export volume is small, but its value is incredible, ” he added. - The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
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