Bird’s nest farmers, operators in Sibu peacefully protest conditions for industry - Borneo Post Online (2025)

SIBU (April 11): Over 100 edible bird’s nest farmers and operators from the central region peacefully gathered here to protest the state of the industry in Sarawak today.

Led by Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan, the group was denied entry into the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) premises in their bid to hand over a letter highlighting problems faced by the bird’s nest industry to the regional manager.

An SFC officer, who received the letter outside the gate, said the regional manager was not around.

Although Voon insisted the letter should be handed over in the office, he was told a permit from the controller was required to enter the compound as stipulated under the National Parks and Nature Reserves Ordinance 1998.

“Our intention is to hand over the letter to the SFC regional officer to inform him about the problems faced by Sarawak’s bird nest industry, as well as have a few words with him.

“It is not courteous to be handing over the letter in the middle of the road. We, PBK, do not hand over letters in the middle of the road, as it is not nice to be seen by the public,” Voon told the officer.

Police personnel were seen outside the SFC office to monitor the protest organised by PBK and Dong Ma Resource.

Voon further claimed that a notice put up at the gate requiring a permit to enter was not there yesterday.

On the letter, he said the swiflet industry had been in existence for at least 25 years without much interruption from the authorities, including SFC.

“This industry has a big market and it is an industry where businessmen poured hundreds of millions of ringgit into the industry. The swiftlet or edible bird’s nest from Sarawak is of very high quality and been in great demand from overseas. This industry had in the past, contributed to employment and economy of Sarawak.

“However, Parti Bumi Kenyalang was told that in recent years, Sarawak bird’s nest industry faces licensing woes, which until now for the past many years had not been resolved by SFC or by the Sarawak government. We were informed that the root cause of problems faced by buyers, processing plants, and exporters stems from the lack of licences for swiftlet houses, which renders raw nests illegal,” he explained.

He said without a licence; bird’s nests could be confiscated by the authorities.

Voon claimed this had caused many businesses to close and over 200,000 people in the industry had lost their jobs.

“Being the licensing authority, the problems in obtaining licences for managing swiftlet houses and trading bird’s nests should be resolved by SFC speedily,” he said.

He also claimed300 applications made to SFC or the relevant authorities in past years had not received any response.

Voon said SFC has an obligation to help operators or owners of swiftlet houses get licences or permits so that the livelihoods of those in this industry will not be affected.

“Your inaction or slow solving of the problems faced by the people and the industry can also cause loss of revenue to the Sarawak government,” he added.