Earning billions from "white gold" of wild birds

"Swallow house street" in Vu Hoa 1 village, Duc Linh commune

"Swallow's Nest Street"

Hundreds of high-rise birdhouses are growing in the residential area, looking like a "city of birdhouses". Traveling on Highway 720 from Tanh Linh, right at Lang Quang Bridge - the border bridge between Tanh Linh and Duc Linh communes, you can see dozens of birdhouses standing tall inside the residential area.

In October, the drizzle is like white smoke floating in the air. In the distance, the natural lake of Lac Sea is vast, and from time to time, you can see fishing boats under the rain, creating a beautiful, poetic scene like a painting. On the lake, flocks of swiftlets fly, their soft wings swaying and playing happily in the sky. On the other side of the bridge, the calls of swiftlets echo throughout the sky.

Before returning to Duc Linh, I heard my brothers ask if I knew anything about the "white gold" of wild birds. I was a bit surprised because for a long time, when talking about "white gold", it was simply understood as rubber tree sap. As for the "white gold" of wild birds, it was a bit strange. When I heard the explanation that the bird's nests were pure white, people earned billions of dong in profit every year so it was called the "white gold" of wild birds... I wondered: "Why do so many swiftlets come to Duc Linh?". Many people analyzed that the freshwater area of Bien Lac is a place with a lot of food for swiftlets, plus swiftlets like to bathe, so the thousand-hectare surface of Bien Lac lake is an ideal place for them to gather.

In Duc Linh, the profession of raising swiftlets has appeared for about 15 - 17 years. In the first few years, the commune only had a few households raising them, the economic efficiency was not high due to lack of techniques, but recently, the number of swiftlets has increased, so people have invested heavily in this "wild bird". The whole area from Nam Thanh, Hoai Duc, Tra Tan communes to Tanh Linh is estimated to have about 500 households raising swiftlets, while Duc Linh has nearly 200 households raising swiftlets. Mr. Tran Anh Tuan - Head of Vu Hoa 1 village (Duc Linh commune) took me to Mr. Tran Xuan Ky's house in hamlet 2, one of the households that invested in raising swiftlets early in the commune. Mr. Ky said: "I have 2 swiftlet houses built since 2016, each month I collect 10 - 11 kg of raw swiftlets, the current price of swiftlets is from 12 - 18 million VND/kg (depending on the type) so I have a good income".

Processing bird's nest in Duc Linh commune

Need to invest in depth to maintain the brand

Why have many households raising swiftlets in Duc Linh been successful for many years, while the market for swiftlets is saturated, even difficult to sell, or some places raising swiftlets are suffering heavy losses? There are many reasons, but the main reason is that Duc Linh has the advantage of natural Bien Lac water, clean water, and abundant food on Bien Lac lake. From here, it creates a source of fragrant, delicious, and higher quality bird's nests than other places. On the other hand, when processing bird's nests to produce finished bird's nest products, most of them in Duc Linh are processed manually but know how to apply production according to prescribed standards, 100% pure bird's nests without mixing like other places, so they are trusted by users... Therefore, although many other places have failed in building bird's nest houses, Duc Linh brand bird's nests have gradually formed and have a stable domestic market, exported up to this point...

Mr. Tuan said that Mr. Ky's house is not the most successful household, but in the commune, there are many households raising swiftlets earning several billion VND/year, which is normal in the area. The story of raising swiftlets in Duc Linh commune is also told quite thrillingly. Because at first, people in the area could not distinguish between swiftlets and swallows. About 15-17 years ago, a flock of swiftlets came to make nests at Mr. V's house, but Mr. V thought they were swallows, so he chased them away. At this time, the flock of swiftlets from Mr. V's house flew to Mr. O's house nearby and continued to make nests. Seeing something strange, Mr. O asked some people and immediately knew that swiftlets were valuable, so he let the flock stay. When he harvested the first batch of bird's nests, he decided to build a house to raise swiftlets. People in Duc Linh said that Mr. O. was lucky, because until now, his bird's nest house had no place for swiftlets to come and make nests. Every year, he earned nearly 2 billion VND from bird's nests...

high-quality duc-linh-saplings.jpg — Processing bird's nest in Duc Linh commune

Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh - Deputy Head of the Economic Department of Duc Linh Commune said that Duc Linh people are quite sensitive in "learning" technology. If in the past, if you wanted to build a bird's nest house, you had to call workers from Khanh Hoa or Ho Chi Minh City to do it at an exorbitant price, then in the past 10 years in Duc Linh, there have been groups of workers specializing in building bird's nest houses at affordable prices. Notable is Mr. Huynh Phuong Toan (Phuong Toan bird's nest), in Nam Chinh 1 village. Mr. Phuong Toan said: "Before, I only did small business, but thanks to traveling to many provinces and cities, I learned a little bit of experience in building bird's nest houses. When Duc Linh people invested a lot in bird's nest houses, I decided to take on the contract at a reasonable price to help the local people. For example, Mr. Huynh Van Hung's house in Vo Xu 9 village (Duc Linh commune) I built for only 800 million VND, after only 1 year, Mr. Hung had 800 birds making more than 250 nests. Up to now, after 6 years of building bird's nest houses, Mr. Hung has reached the number of birds about 13,000 - 15,000 birds, equivalent to nearly 180 kg of raw bird's nests/year, with a revenue of about over 2 billion VND/year".

Mr. Phuong Toan continued: "Not only building birdhouses, my family and I have built 10 houses to raise birds since May 2015, the profit from bird's nests is quite high and stable. Over the past 10 years, the family has harvested an average of 1 billion VND/birdhouse/year. The profit after deducting expenses from 10 birdhouses is estimated at about 8 billion VND/year." Currently, Mr. Phuong Toan is both building birdhouses and purchasing bird's nests from local people to process into finished products to sell to domestic companies. Phuong Toan bird's nest products have been recognized as 3-star Ocop products and the processing factory meets HACCP standards, so they are very popular in the market.

Success from raising swiftlets in Duc Linh, it is not a simple matter to eat the "white gold" of wild birds, but thanks to the economic acumen of the people, we have achieved the results like today. In addition to Phuong Toan bird's nest, in the commune there are 4 more establishments specializing in making bird's nests that are recognized as Ocop with 3 stars or more such as: Minh Oanh bird's nest, Nam Duong, Truong Thinh, Bao Ngoc... Most of the processing establishments buy bird's nests from local people to process and supply to the domestic market and export.

From another perspective, although raising swiftlets is contributing to improving people's lives, the noise problem is still a concern. Although people are very conscious of turning on loudspeakers from 5am to 7pm to call swiftlets back, it still bothers a small number of households that do not raise swiftlets next door. Raising swiftlets in Duc Linh is bringing in a very high economic value, creating jobs for many households, but in the long term, there needs to be a deep development orientation so that more swiftlet products can be exported, then the swiftlet farming profession will be sustainable...

Flocks of swallows fly around to invite their mates to build nests in Duc Linh every day. The “white gold” nests are helping local people earn billions of dong from this precious bird. Hopefully, Duc Linh will develop further with this “good land for birds to nest” area...

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/thu-tien-ty-tu-vang-trang-chim-troi-394511.html