RI, world's largest swallow nest exporter

RI, world's largest swallow nest exporter

SEMARANG, Central Java: Indonesia is currently the world's largest exporter of swallows' nests, with more than 80 percent of the total swallow nest products world wide coming from Indonesia.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Swallow Nest Producers, Sukmana, said yesterday these figures are not recorded by the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation and the ministry of trade since a large amount of the exports carry no official license nor letters of quarantine.

Most have been unrecorded because the commodities have been packed and sent through postal or cargo services labeled as dried food stuff, he told The Jakarta Post.

Smuggling occurs mainly through Aceh, Medan, Batam, Pangkalpinang, Jakarta, Bali, Pontianak and along the borders between Kalimantan and Malaysia.

Aside from tax losses, Sukmana said, the smuggling may also tarnish Indonesia's reputation as a signatory of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The nests, which can be used as medicine and food ingredients, are presently exported to Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Canada, China, Hongkong, Taiwan and Japan.(har)