Special Interest investments: Bird Nest Eco Park

I purchased a unit of interest in this venture sometime last year. So far, they've made good their promise of the 1st year return which is in the form of their products (retail value of RM800). Well, you know, bird nest has a high perceived value (even to me, especially on the health & beauty aspect! Yes, I'm vain).

Now that the issue with exporting bird nest products to China is more or less sorted out, it should bode well.

I think I kinda like buying more 'exotic' investments e.g. bullion, bird nest (oh yeah, the return on my fave shopping mall REIT was unexpected and not bad, think it works out to be around a 6% return pa).

Why the birds nest investment?

  1. Culturally significant luxury food item to the Chinese (Japanese & Koreans too, I think. And if not, it's not a stretch of the imagination for them to latch onto it too.)
  2. Only available from South East Asia - the swiftlets that produce this do not live anywhere else - don't even think it can be replicated elsewhere as these are wild birds.
  3. Wild harvesting is irresponsible - they don't care if there are eggs or chicks in the nests, they will just take grab the nests and will eventually cause the cave-exclusive swiftlet to become endangered and diminish stocks. While harvesting is licensed and only for certain seasons, it is still a brutal practice, not to mention dangerous for the harvesters who are earn very little (as usual, the middle man makes more). This farming venture lures the species that nests in both caves and man-made structures, thus ensuring a steady supply through controlled harvesting.
  4. Life Quality - although it is "farmed", the birds are actually wild. So they are not confined nor subject to any kind of intervention. The only thing the farm does is to provide safe nesting structures for the birds to build their nests and the nests are harvested only after the chicks are matured and flown off. The farm also creates brackish ponds nearby to ensure a supply of marine crustaceans that the swiftlets feed on.
  5. Value-add plans - they are planning to turn the industry into something more upscale and value add through tours and restaurants at the farm sites; now this may seem like something small but the China market is huge and where they are right now, socially and economically, this kind of thing (i.e. taking a tour to view a bird nest farm and eat / buy bird nest products) is stuff Chinese people love to do. Seriously. Just look at how Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian and Taiwanese Chinese buy up silks, medicines and stuff from China every year since the 70's to now ... and imagine the other way around, China people coming to get exclusive-to-South East Asia stuff here... ha..
Anyway, I really should go buy another unit but think I'll put the money into this new palm oil interest scheme... hmm.. topic for another day

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