Kuala Lumpur: The Beluran Area Farmers Organisation (PPK Beluran) is planning to establish scheduled swiftlet nest buying centres by organising mini buying fairs at selected potential PPKs in Sabah.
PPK Beluran Board Chairman Datuk James Ratib said the initiative is hoped to be implemented with the assistance of the Farmers Organisation Authority (LPP).
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James, who is also Sabah Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, said this at the signing ceremony for the extension of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for the marketing business of raw uncleaned bird nests (RUC) and cleaned processed bird nests (RC) between PPK Beluran and Nestlin Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
He represented PPK Beluran in his capacity as Board Chairman, while Nestlin Malaysia was represented by its Managing Director Datuk Sia Swee Seng. The ceremony was held at LPP Tower in Kuala Lumpur.
According to James, the collaboration began nine years ago in 2016 and has since expanded to include a bird nest processing factory and downstream products based on swiftlet nests.
“In the early phase of this collaboration, both parties focused on purchasing raw bird nests from farmer members and supplying them to Nestlin.
“However, under this new agreement, the partnership has been extended to cover the processing of raw nests into cleaned nests (RC), as well as the production of value-added products derived from swiftlet nests,” he said.
James, who is also Sugut Assemblyman, added that the partnership involves technology transfer for the cleaning of bird nests and manufacturing of downstream products between Nestlin and PPK Beluran.
Touching on future plans for this collaboration, he said PPK Beluran and Nestlin aim to dominate 80 per cent of bird nest purchases in Sabah.
“To this end, with support from LPP, we plan to establish scheduled buying centres by organising mini buying fairs at promising PPKs such as PPK Kalabakan, PPK Papar and PPK Pitas.
“This proposal will be implemented within this year,” he said.
He said PPK Beluran’s main mission is to become a key player in the bird nest industry as a stockholder and producer of downstream products under the Beluran Bird Nest brand, with the support of Nestlin Malaysia.
Also present were LPP Director-General Amir Matamin, LPP Economic Development Division Director Marlina Mohammad, PPK Beluran General Manager Sumarang Chunbung and the PPK Beluran Board of Directors members.
