Bird’s nest soup spices up property market in Malaysia

Penang, April 30: MALAYSIANS are kitting out old buildings with stereo systems, humidifiers that emit cooling mists and rustic fittings — all to attract guests whose spit is their most valuable attribute.

The white-nest swift uses its saliva to string together a tiny gauze-like nest perched in often inaccessible spots. Gathered at great risk, they form the chief ingredient of the wildly popular Chinese delicacy, bird’s nest soup. Now, entrepreneurs are luring the birds to old buildings in urban areas, making it easier to harvest the nests and take them to market — and rake in the profits.

And in doing so, they have triggered a property boom. Traditionally, men tracked the birds to their isolated caves and climbed bamboo poles to knock the nests off the walls.

But entrepreneurs have found that the swift, a relative of the humming bird, can be enticed to nest in urban buildings. Recently, more than 400 people flocked to a one-day national workshop on how to make birdhouses swift-friendly, more than twice the number organisers had expected.

John Chen owns a row of three shop houses in Sitiawan, whose upper floors and backrooms are home to swifts. Chen is one of the few operators who will let outsiders into his houses but he won’t talk profits. The birdhouse is dim, with the pungent smell of droppings. Dozens of swifts wheel in and out through a two-foot square hole high in the wall. The birds navigate with sound waves bounced off walls and crevices, so the air is filled with the clicks of flyers along with the peeps of the chicks.

Rows of white nests, like half-moon-shaped balconies, jut from thin, wooden planks attached to the ceiling. The birds are encouraged to nest on the wood because the nests can be removed more cleanly than from the building’s original cement walls, says Chen, president of Malaysia Bird’s Nest Merchants Association.

Adult birds can spend up to two months slowly building the nests with their saliva. Once the babies leave, the nests are collected, processed in local factories to remove feathers and other debris, and packaged for sale. About half of Malaysia’s nests are consumed at home. The rest are exported, mainly to Hong Kong and Singapore, Chen says. The soup may be low on nutrients but is popularly credited with clearing up women’s complexions and flushing out the male digestive system. A 150-gm box of superior nests — about 30 pieces — on display at the workshop was priced at $ 1,316. Restaurants sell a bowl of the elixir for about $21.

Those prices have encouraged hundreds to launch bird businesses in the past two years, sending real estate in small towns soaring. The prices of Taiping’s vacant shop houses — two-storeyed buildings designed for retail trade on the ground floor with living quarters above — doubled in 2000 to $ 65,789, a local real estate agent told Reuters last year. The cost of a shop house in the town of Sitiawan jumped to $ 92,105 in 2000 from $ 65,789 in 1999, birdhouse owner Ling Jeng Chai says. Since he set up his first house — ‘‘as a hobby’’ — over two years ago, the number of birdhouses has soared to 300 from 20.

Builders may spend over $ 10,000 to renovate a property. But neighbours in many towns have complained about the smell, droppings and the 24-hour recorded chirping many owners play to attract feathered tenants. ‘‘These bird’s nests problems are one of the major items on our agenda every month,’’ says Mohammad Pilus Mohammad Noor, councillor for Seberang Prai, a Penang municipality.

‘‘Most of the birdhouses are sandwiched by residential units. That’s where the problem comes up.’’ Rearing swifts is still technically illegal but like many councils, Seberang Prai recognises that swifts are fast becoming big business, says Mohammad Pilus. ‘‘We try to close one eye and let it happen.’’

Malaysia is prepared to remove the swiftlets’ ‘‘totally protected’’ status because it believes the birdhouse business will boost the bird population, Misliah Mohammad Basri, director of the wildlife department’s Penang office, said.

‘‘Every morning, the birds come out of the house, circle around and fly off to forage. They always go in the same direction. You watch,’’ says Lim, an engineer. ‘‘If you can follow them to where they forage and build your house there, you’ve got it made.’’ (REUTERS)