Ms. Tran Thi Thu Phuong, Department of Animal Health, said the protocol to require quarantine, inspection and veterinary hygiene for bird nest products exported from Vietnam to China has 16 articles on regulations for bird nest houses, bird nest processing companies and export companies; Packaging, labelling, quarantine, inspection, disease surveillance and food safety requirements.

ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEM FOR SWALLOW BREED

According to Ms. Phuong, companies wishing to export bird nests and bird nest products to China through official channels must register a bird nest house with a relevant local authority to obtain a bird nest code. Submit a document to the Department of Animal Health requesting advice and assistance, along with a list of swiftlet breeders who offer raw bird nests for business.

At the same time, there is a need to coordinate disease surveillance and sampling and food safety criteria in accordance with the regulations of Vietnam and China; Preparation of dossiers, information and data for the registration of export companies according to China’s requirements and guidelines of the Ministry of Animal Health.

At the online forum “Promoting Digitization in Traceability of Agricultural Products – Food”, Deputy Chief of Animal Breeds Department – Animal Production Department Mr. Do Van Hoan said that raising cattle swifts faces many difficulties in addition to advantages. That is, agriculture is still spontaneous, movement and has no long-term development orientation; disease control for swifts has many deficiencies in terms of epidemiological knowledge; missing industry affiliation, product origin not traceable.

In order to support and develop Vietnamese swiftlet farming to meet the needs of import markets, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has commissioned the Ministry of Livestock to develop national data on the number of bird nest houses and the yield of the nests is close to reality , with high accuracy, to serve management and export. At the same time, provide relevant information and data to the Department of Animal Health to provide upon request of the importing country.

Mr. Do Van Hoan said the system would continuously update the data, thereby forming a two-way communication channel between manufacturing companies and state administrative departments. The assignment of codes for glider breeding operations is as follows:

Step 1. The owner of the Common Swift Farm fills in all the information in the Declaration of Common Swift Activity Form No. 01 and sends it to the Municipality People’s Committee.

Step 2. The owner of the swiftlet farm accesses the Livestock database system under the domain name https://csdlchannuoi.mard.gov.vn to declare information required by the animal husbandry of the database system and a photocopy of the form No. 01 to be attached certified by the People’s Committee of the Municipality, 01. Photo of the front of the Common Swift breed.

Step 3. The Provincial Subdivision for State Administration of Animal Husbandry verifies and confirms the information of the swift farms in the livestock database system. The system will automatically issue the swiftlet rearing facility code and at the same time report the code on the account and send it to the owner’s email.

“If the establishment breeding swifts is ‘registered for export’, the provincial-level animal husbandry subdivision of the state administration makes a list, conducts a physical inspection, and attaches the actual inspection results to the database system. The system automatically issues the code of the facility that breeds swiftlets for export, reports the code on the account at the same time, and sends it to the owner’s email,” Mr. Hoan informed.

Swallow’s Nest MUST BE CRAFTED FROM SWALLOW’S NEST IF “FLEXIBLE” INGREDIENTS NEED TO BE WRITTEN

A delegate attending the forum asked, “If one bird’s nest rearing household participates in traceability and the other does not, is the selling price of bird’s nest products different?”

Mr. Do Van Hoan said: For bird’s nest products, the selling price is currently determined by two factors, the first is the quality of the product, the second is the buyer’s trust in the seller.

Mr. Hoan quoted, “I can spend 3 million/kg bird’s nest for the product that people collect in the bird’s nest and then prepare it for me to take away. And if 2 million/kg is sold on the market, but I don’t know where the product comes from, I can’t buy such a cheap bird’s nest. The traceability or non-traceability of the product required by the forum participant does not therefore constitute the selling price of the product.”

Mr. Hoan said that sometimes traceability is required in accordance with the law as well as the requirements of the import market. “However, at present, officials at the community level still have to count the swiftlets’ homes themselves and compile statistics and collect documents to report to the ministry. The state wants to promote and open a database system for farmers to register voluntarily to make a statement, but it still needs to be enforced through administrative measures, then new farms can register,” said Mr. Hoan.

Another delegate raised the issue: At present, illegally importing bird nests for processing is very common. Ask the Ministry of Animal Production to answer this problem. In the market of our country today there are many products from bird’s nest, which are fake. These fake bird’s nest products are just as expensive as real bird’s nest products and are very ingeniously manufactured and sold throughout the domestic market from north to south.

There are many ways to make artificial bird nests: white oats colored to blood oats (because blood oats have a value 2-3 times higher than white oats), nested nests (using broken nests and then patching, adding starch or chemical sugar) . increase the volume of oats), oats made of starch, sprayed to increase weight … In many oat products, people “stuff” substances such as sugar, salt, binders, latex stream, agar, starch … in the bird nest. Bird’s Nest and Bird’s Nest when “Padded” has reduced nutritional value and is no longer safe for user’s health.

Regarding the problem of illegal import of bird nests, Mr. Hoan said that your country’s bird nest products have been brought to the Vietnamese market for domestic consumption over the years. “We cannot estimate what the import data is, but through relationships and information, we find that the people who import bird’s nests from other countries have more oats than the focus of domestic purchase. However, we must also fairly assess the fact that the bird’s nest is still being imported and processed,” Mr Hoan said.

On the subject of “padded” in bird nest products, Mr. Hoan stated: When labeling as bird nest and bird nest products, you have to make sure that they are made from real bird nests, i.e. 100% from the saliva of birds. For other products that are not fully bird’s nest type, the ingredients must also be listed, as well as what percentage of bird’s nest juice is in it, which gives the product value.