In the seminar “Sustainable development of Swiflet farming in Vietnam” on the 5 of April in Nha Trang, representatives stated that Vietnam needs to have a sustainable development strategy for swiftlet farming in order to build a strong national brand of “Vietnam Bird Nest” in the international market. 

To the report, swiftlet farming has been developing rapidly in Vietnam. There are about 219 swiftlet caves in Vietnam which located 154 caves in Khanh Hoa, 16 caves in Binh Dinh, 7 caves in Quang Nam, 12 caves in Phu Yen, 14 caves in Con Dao and so on. The production of bird nest is about 5,000kg/year in which Khach Hoa produces about 3,200kg/year. In addition, there are huge amount of swiftlet being farmed in the house. There are about 2000 houses in the southern of Vietnam such as Kien Giang, Dong Nai, Tien Giang, HCM city.

Scientists consider Vietnam has great potential and advantages for developing the swiftlet farming due to the favorable geography such as long beaches, islands, mountains, bays, and lagoons. Vietnam bird nest is considered to have a better quality compared with other countries in South East Asia. Swiftlet farms have experience and technique in farming and producing bird nest. However, Vietnam has not yet found its full potential. In-house swiftlet farming has been developed spontaneously without any planning and specific guiding. Therefore, it is risky for the farmers. Moreover, urbanization and deforestation have seriously damaged the swiftlet’s environment...

According to Mr. Le Huu Hoang (Director of one of the Bird nest company in Vietnam), it is a golden time for Vietnam to develop the swiftlet farming. A large amount of swiftlet have been moving to the north and swiftlet population in Vietnam has been increasing rapidly due to climate changing, tsunami, earthquake in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand. This is a significant factor for expanding the swiftlet farming in Vietnam. Therefore, a clear developing strategy based on the national master planning is urgently needed. To build the swiftlet farming developing strategy for 2013-2020, leaders of provinces and cities are required to get involved. The strategy will be constructed based on the information from swiftlet farmers, consultants, and related authorities. Moreover, the orientation of manpower training and R&D has to be included...   

Professor Mai Dinh Yen (National University of Hanoi) stated, to have the sustainable development of swiftlet farming, we need to implement the national science and technology program in “Investigation, benefits study, exploiting and farming swiftlet”. There are 4 directions in the program including (1) classifying and allocating the swiftlet types in Vietnam (2) comprehensive study of biological, ecological, technological processes on swiftlet farming (3) analyzing and assessing the nutritional value, medicinal of the natural bird nest (4) research planning and nature reservation areas for swiftlet.

During Nha Trang festival 2013, Khanh Hoa bird nest festival is opened on the 8^th of April at Seapark at no.4 Pham Van Dong Street. Attractive programs include: tour to bird nest Hon Noi island, tour “Fishing at night”, The cup Sanna beach volleyball tournament international, Photo contest “Khanh Hoa bird nest and homeland”...

Souce: Thanh Nien Online