The business potential of swallow’s nest is very high especially Indonesia is the largest producer of swallow’s nest. However, the scientific side has not been much appreciated by the academic world.
This was revealed by the Dean of the Faculty of Animal Science (FAS) UGM, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ali Agus, DAA., DEA., IPU., ASEAN. Eng when opening the Swallow Bird National Seminar “Business and Scientific Potential of Swallow Farming in Indonesia”, Thursday (10/17) at the FAS UGM campus.
“It is highly potential, but not many care about the campus. The price of 50 grams of swallow’s nest or the equivalent of 1 egg is 1.2 million rupiah. Price of nests that have just come out of the cage of 8-12 million rupiah, depending on quality. After being processed, it can be exported at a price of 70-75 million rupiah per kilogram,” Ali said.
Ali added, the swallow bird national seminar was held because there were not many swallow experts. During this time, there are more experts leading to ornamental birds.
“This seminar was held in the context of the Lustrum X FAS UGM. Hopefully this seminar will continue and in the future, the speakers will be endeavored to become visiting swallow birds professors. Academics and practitioners are like two sides of a coin, if these two sides run, it would be ideal, “Ali said.
Ali is optimistic that the collaboration between academics and practitioners will be a tremendous opportunity. Academics support the research aspect, while practitioners support the business aspect. He hopes that UGM will be a pioneer in developing practical research on swallows development. The national seminar presented two speakers, Drs. Arief Budiman as CEO of Walet World and Ade Rachmad Dermawan, ST as Director of PT Borneo Lancar Abadi. (Nadia)