The current low price of EBN has caused lots of stress and worries. I anticipated the situation won’t last for long, presumably by the 3th quarter of this year or much early the EBN prices would bounce back. Though there are news that the restrictions had been lifted but somehow I take it as speculation. Even if the restrictions had been lifted it would take a while for the EBN prices to move back to what it was.
There were some who totally abandoned what they had used to do. They stop visiting their Bhs, they stop harvesting the nests, and they stop the maintenance works, the reason given was low EBN price.
Yes all blame it on the Low EBN price. What if the EBN prices increase suddenly? When there are no more restrictions from China (Malaysia as well….).
Then only they would resume their works? By then it would be too late. During this time Bhs that are not taken care properly would have their birds attracted by other Bhs. Well you could pacify yourself by saying “Never mind let them take my Birds anyway the EBN price is Low”.
Swiftlet farming is all about persistency in continuing doing the best for the Bh in order to produce good results. It is just like planting fruit trees. You have to nurture them from the beginning in order to have a fruitful harvest. You put insecticide to prevent insects from eating the young leaves, you put all sorts of fertilizer, and you water it every day. This period may takes months perhaps years depend on what type of fruit trees you are planting. After long wait then only you would see result.
What if you stop taking care of the fruits trees halfway? Later the trees are infested with diseases and malnutrition and no longer could bear quality fruits because you didn’t take care of it. Then suddenly the fruits price in the market soared and you start to put fertilizers, water it and so on. Now you have to wait as the weak trees take time to recover. Whereas your neighbor who had been taking of all their trees all the time without abandoning their works, now could have a good harvest and earn double profit. Now you missed the boat!
You are not persistent but later expecting the tree to bear good fruits? Think about it, do you think it will works?
Don’t blame it on the price of EBN. Even the prices of EBN had declined lately which had reduced to half due to the crisis with China but its selling price is still higher than many farming produces. What other farming businesses could give you 1 kg for a thousand plus (current price of EBN) without the high cost of maintenance? I guess none!
Many had asked me whether is it still lucrative to invest in Swiftlet farming, my reply was yes. Provided you know what to do and have reasonable skills in setting up a Bh. Like I had said “winner takes all and loser ended up with none”.
Oil Palm needs extensive of land, huge amount of fertilizers, labor intensive harvesting and maintenance, landscape maintenance, etc. How much per Kg? That goes as well for rubber trees. Obviously you could argue that Oil Palm is a volume business which counts on tonnage instead of kg but what is the capital of investment in order for you to count on tonnage? (Unless your father has plenty of unused idle land then you could make use of it. That would help a lot when minus the land cost.)
If your personnel wealth is not huge then you can forget about it. Whereas for Swiftlet farming you could start small (on the shop lot 1st floor) and the returns is big.
Unless the EBN price per kg drop below Rm 500.00 then all could forget about Swiftlet farming, that included me. It will never happen because only few countries produce the EBN furthermore artificial farming like in captivity all failed badly. So it’s still no mass production like other farming. Secondly with the huge population of China and its roaring economy it would take at least 20 years from now for the demand of EBN to slow down. Bear in mind the current Low price of EBN has got nothing to do with the market demand. It is all because of political affair, sanctions and restrictions.
So if you had always done your part taking care of your Swiftlet farm immaterial how the EBN prices go up and down when all these restrictions are lifted you will be the first to capitalize on the profit. Once the price of EBN goes up those who had abandoned what they had used to do would start to harvest, cleaning up the birds dropping, change malfunction tweeters, spraying hormone, changing sound, etc by then they would be left behind by those who had taken care of Bhs consistently .While for those who had neglected their Bh they need time to catch up. As we know attracting Birds to stay and to build nests is not an overnight thing.
So consistently taking care of your Bhs will always benefit you.
Good Swiftlet farming All!