Can Gio Bird's Nest sleep on its great potential

On September 9, the Can Gio District People's Committee organized the 2nd OCOP Can Gio coffee program with the theme: "Building the Can Gio bird's nest brand" at En Viet Ecotourism Area (Tam Thon Hiep commune).

The program was organized to discuss and exchange solutions to improve the quality of bird's nests and products made from bird's nests. As a consequence, it helps promote the development of the Can Gio bird's nest brand in the district.

Can Gio has had a tradition of raising bird nests for nests since 2003. Up to now, the district has a total of 519 bird nest houses (accounting for 75% of total bird nest houses in Ho Chi Minh City) in Binh Khanh, An Thoi Dong, Tam Thon Hiep, and Ly Nhon commune. Raw bird's nest output is estimated at 14.96 tons, worth about VND 250 billion/year. Bird's Nest is a 4-star OCOP product among a total of 18 OCOP products in Can Gio.

Can Gio district has a cool climate and is favourable for the development of bird's nest farming. Can Gio owns a mangrove forest area of over 30,000 hectares, helping swiftlets have a living environment without industrial factories emitting dust and smoke.

At the exchange, experts contributed ideas and perspectives to build the Can Gio bird's nest brand and develop further. 

Regarding nutrition, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Director of the International Analysis Center, at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade said that bird's nest contains many nutritional ingredients that are beneficial to human health.

“Bird's nest has high nutritional content. If we compare with eggs and milk, the amino acid content in a bird's nest is 17 times higher. Through analysis, we found that Can Gio bird's nest has quite a high nutritional content compared to other places," Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa shared. 

From the perspective of promoting bird's nest products, Mr Dao Ha Trung, Chairman of the High Technology Association, said that Can Gio should focus on quality management and improving packaging design. Accordingly, the designs must be eye-catching and modern to attract the attention of domestic and foreign consumers. 

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest market in the country. This is where all the best products are concentrated and consumed. However, it is hard to look for a Ho Chi Minh City-specific product to give as a gift. This is the problem that city leaders pose. 

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Phuong, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade: "Building the Can Gio bird's nest brand requires the cooperation and synthesis of many fields." Photo: Le Binh.

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Phuong, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade said that this Department is being assigned by the City People's Committee to prepare a detailed plan for the bird's nest farming area in Can Gio. This will be the premise for Can Gio City and the district to build a roadmap, invest and have appropriate development. 

We must acknowledge the reality that although raising bird's nests in Can Gio is ahead of its competitors, it is behind compared to other localities across the country. Although Can Gio has been producing bird's nests for a long time, it has forgotten the mission of building its brand. Therefore, although it is considered to have high nutritional content, not many people know about the Can Gio bird's nest product.

“Can Gio bird's nest farming sleep on its great potential. We need to have differences in building this brand, we need to get rid of old, inappropriate thoughts", Mr Phuong expressed.

One of the challenges of the Can Gio bird's nest farming industry is that most of them currently only produce and sell raw bird's nests. Meanwhile, the value of selling deeply processed bird's nest products is 10-13 times higher than the current sale of raw bird's nest. Therefore, this is an issue that bird's nest businesses in Can Gio need to pay attention to and invest in and develop.

In recent years, the district has received focused attention from leaders at all levels. In particular, when the Can Gio international transhipment port and Can Gio bridge project come into operation, it will completely change the appearance of this island district. Mr. Nguyen Van Hong, Chairman of the Can Gio District People's Committee said that building the Can Gio bird's nest brand is also a plan to "get ahead" of consumer trends and create a unique brand for the island district.

"To do a good job in building the Can Gio bird's nest brand, we need to have an Association or Branch of bird's nest farming to be the leader in concentrated bird's nest farming, avoiding small-scale farming. This is also a factor to control each other, compete and reach further," the Chairman of Can Gio District People's Committee directed.

Currently, the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City is coordinating with departments, branches, manufacturing enterprises, retail enterprises, and e-commerce platforms... review and consider the potential of many unique and typical products in the city.