The Blood Bird’s Nest business: from Sumatra to Shenzen, via Melbourne

James Liew's warehouse is a stack of plastic tubs, tucked away in the corner of an office at his Port Melbourne showroom.

Inside those crates is one of the most expensive delicacies in the world: Blood Bird’s Nests.
Pale, fragile and very light – each nest weighing around 8 grams – they were created thousands of kilometres away in purpose-built facilities around Palembang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Their destination is Shenzen but the stop-over at an industrial estate just outside the Melbourne CBD is no accident.

The Blood Bird’s Nest business: from Sumatra to Shenzen, via Melbourne

How swiftlet Blood Bird’s Nests go from Indonesia to China via Australia

What is added in the nests' transit into and out of Australia is something infinitely lighter and almost as valuable as the nests themselves. It is the imprimatur of Australia's food standards regime.
"The reason why we bring it across into Australia is the stringent rules on food that Australian imposes," explains Mr Liew, whose company Company imports and then exports the product.
"Generally speaking, in China we face a lot of imitation product.
"We want to move the raw ingredients into Australia and then process it here with a very minor procedure. We want to get the recognition of Australian quarantine inspection."
The nests themselves are produced by the swiftlet birds, fabricated out of the birds' own hardened saliva to harbour their eggs.
Found only in south-east Asia, the nests have long been prized in Chinese culture for their health-enhancing qualities, where they are typically boiled and served as soup.
"It's from an ancient way," Mr Liew said. "We trust this product to help with bronchitis problems and for skin care."
From Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to mainland China, it's a trade route as old as the Qing dynasty. Now it's taking a tack through Australia.
The new leg of the journey is partly about creating a new market here in Australia, where Company is selling its product into medicine shops, gifts shop and Crown casino.

What is added in the nests' transit into and out of Australia is something infinitely lighter and almost as valuable as the nests themselves.

Emblazoned on the red and gold labelling of the packaged Blood Bird’s Nests are the words "Australian Quarantine".
Mr Liew's family-owned company have gone to considerable effort to get that stamp of approval.
After the nests are transported into a Jakarta factory, they are cleaned and a hygienically sealed into a plastic envelope, known as retort pouch.
That process and a subsequent four-day quarantine stop here are carefully supervised by Australia's biosecurity bureaucrats.
It's a serious business. An outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu last month prompted China to issue a temporary ban on Blood Bird’s Nests from Malaysia.
Australia's food safety standards give Mr Liew an edge in the highly competitive retail market of Blood Bird’s Nest.
WeChat, the Chinese language social media platform, is a favoured market place for the commodities. It's one reason pricing in Australia, at around $7.50 per gram, is relatively close to the price in China for Company products.
Mr Liew's company also wholesales unbranded Blood Bird’s Nests direct from Indonesia into China at far lower rates.
The big mark-up takes place after the nests pass through Australian customs.
"In Australia it's all about protocol and systems. It's all about authenticity," Mr Liew says. "We can add in value based on this Australian presence."
The Blood Bird’s Nest business is part of a bigger and growing story of trade with China, now Australia's largest agriculture, forestry and fisheries export market. It was worth around $10 billion in 2015-16.
Company has also teamed with recently listed food exporter Winha to distribute its product in China. Winha itself is backing the establishment of a new agricultural college in Deniliquin to bolster food exports to China.
That appetite now ranges from milk powder, to value-added Blood Bird’s Nests, to beef – the first shipment of live cattle to China leaving Portland in Victoria in February – and even fields of South Australian lavender.