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Bird's nests catch profits
Many families in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are investing in houses to attract salangane whose nests are prized for their medicinal values.
Soup cooked with bird's nest is an expensive dish found in Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine.
Delta residents are making a healthy income by harvesting the nests and building houses normally occupied by people.
The activity is becoming more popular in Bac Lieu Province's Bac Lieu Town, Kien Giang Province's Rach Gia City and Ha Tien Town, Tien Giang Province's Go Cong Town and Long Binh Commune, and Ca Mau Province's Tran Van Thoi District.
Kien Giang Province authorities said 20 families were doing business sheltering the salanganes.
Bui Dinh Thuy, a resident in Kien Giang, has given up his four-storey house for the birds and is living in another one.
Banh Van Dang, a resident in Bac Lieu Town's Ward 1, made use of his terrace and invested VND80 million (US$4,188) to equip it with tools that create special sounds. He also sprays steam to create a humid atmosphere, which helps attract the birds, also called cave swifts.
Quach Van Tong, an overseas Vietnamese, invested VND48 billion ($2.5 million) in a model project combining birds' nests harvesting and tourism on 4,000sq. m allocated by Bac Lieu Town's authorities at three locations.
Residents in Rach Gia City said they saw swifts gathered at the province's Cultural Centre for the first time after a storm in 1997. But they also spread their lodgings out to residents' houses nearby.
A favoured habitat of the birds in Bac Lieu Town is the roof of the province's Polyclinic Hospital buildings, while in Ha Tien and Go Cong towns the birds flock to residents' houses.
Experts says the warm climate of the South and southern central provinces from Da Nang to Binh Thuan, where the Hai Van Pass near Da Nang blocks cold winds from the North, is favourable for swifts.
According to the HCM City-based Institute of Tropical Biology, an average of 1,000 swifts make about 400 nests in one season and each nest, which is produced by the swift's saliva, is about 10 grammes.
Experts of the institute estimate that it takes three years to measure the success of a house that attracts at least 300 individuals per season.
They praise the support of the delta provinces' authorities for residents in helping them reduce risks and make better use of a high-value resource.
Delta residents are conducting the business by learning from other central localities such as Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.
Le Danh Hoang, a successful bird's nest businessman with the Hoang Yen Eka trademark, said a 300-sq. m house with 2,500 individuals might produce 50kg of birds' nests after 10 years. During the first two to three years, a house can produce up to 2kg per month only.
There are about 300-400 families from Da Nang City to Kien Giang Province involved in running the business.
vietnamnews
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