A Vietnamese business has got the green light from the General Administration of Chinese Customs (GACC) to export its first batch of bird’s nests to China next week, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said on Saturday.

According to the MARD’s Department of Animal Health, 45 Vietnamese firms had registered to export bird’s nests to China and were given guidelines from the department to fulfill China’s inspection and quarantine requirements.

Nine of them completed export registration documents and submitted them to the GACC for consideration.

The GACC conducted online checks on five of these nine enterprises and allowed Avanest Vietnam Nutrition JSC to export bird’s nests and ready-to-eat bird’s nests to China from October 20 this year.

The GACC is reviewing the documents of other Vietnamese firms and will announce the results later.

After the MARD and the GACC signed a protocol on quarantine, inspection and veterinary hygiene requirements for bird's nests shipped from Vietnam to China in November last year, the MARD and its Department of Animal Health jointly worked to ramp up the implementation of the protocol, said Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.

The number of bird’s nest farms nationwide has risen significantly over the past few years, with bird’s nest businesses established in 42 out of the 63 provinces and cities across the country, according to the MARD.

The country reported 23,665 bird’s nest farms last year, up threefold against the 2017 figure.

Southern Kien Giang Province, south-central Khanh Hoa Province, and Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands witnessed a sharp increase in numbers of bird’s nest farms.

Bird’s nest farms nationwide generate a combined output of some 200 metric tons per year, worth around US$200 million.

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