Edible bird’s nest (EBN), also known as swiftlet’s nest, has been used for centuries whether as a tonic or health food in countries around Asia-Pacific. Swiftlets are small insectivorous birds which can be found throughout Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
What are the problems we are solving?
Inadequate value addition in Edible Bird’s Nest (EBN) value chain is the major factor for economic losses in the EBN industry nationally. As an example, of the RM1.7 billion Malaysia’s EBN export to China, RM0.85 million is unprocessed and non-value added thus resulting in an economic potential loss of wealth capture valued at between RM1.1 billion and RM2.8 billion nationally and annually. In addition to that, any remainder EBN that is processed will typically result in 20-25% of product lost in the form of wastewater. The lack of EBN recovery from the wastewater coupled with the lack of any innovative and commercially viable use for recovered EBN thus result in a further loss of economic value capture of RM425-570 million annually in Malaysia. This is in spite of the growing demand of increasingly wealthier proportion of Chinese consumers.
How to solve the problem?
We are pursuing blue ocean strategy where no other EBN businesses have done before, i.e. (i) green processing from EBN waste recovery, and (ii) high-end enzymatic value addition to existing “run-of-the-mill” EBN processing. The production of enzymatic hydrolysates are highly digestible EBN peptides (70-80% more so than unprocessed EBN) which have improved anti-oxidative and anti-hypertensive properties. This production has been patentedby Professor Abdul Salam Babji who is working with Agridon to scale-up and commercialise the production plant. While clean non-hydrolysed EBN can fetch up to RM10,000/kg, hydrolysed EBN can fetch between RM18,000/kg to RM25,000/kg (spray dried and freeze dried forms). The much larger monetary incentive and margin provided by hydrolysis based value addition provides incentive for EBN producers and processors to implement value added recovery and processing in their production line.
What are the potential impacts?
Wealth creation and capture as a result of capturing market share of a growing economic pie in cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical, especially targeted at the Chinese market in China due to their cultural and historical affinity with EBN. All three aforementioned sectors have Capital Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) that are between 2 and 3 times higher than the growth rate of the global economy (3.1% in 2018), e.g.:
- Pharmaceutical: The global pharmaceutical market is projected to reach USD$291 billion by 2021 from USD$176.9 billion in 2015 with a CAGR of 8.6%;
- Nutraceutical: The global nutraceutical market is projected to reach USD$278.96 billion by 2021 from USD$142.1 billion in 2011 with a CAGR of 6.3%;
- Cosmeceutical: The global cosmeceutical market is projected to reach USD$68.72 billion by 2022 from USD$42.24 billion in 2016 with a CAGR of 8.52%;
For more scientific information on EBN by patent holder
- Effects of spray drying and size reduction of edible bird’s nest on in-vitro digestibility;
- Antioxidative activities of hydrolysates from edible birds nest using enzymatic hydrolysis;
- Effect of enzymatic hydrolysis on Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity in swiftlet saliva.
For more patent information on EBN by patent holder
- Bioactive swiftlet nest supplement (Patent number: WO2017034390A3).
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