PUTRAJAYA, March 10: Six officials from China arrived here on Tuesday to audit Malaysia’s bird’s nests processing factories. The team is from the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA) and it is expected to be in Malaysia for two weeks.
The audit is the first of two final steps to get Malaysian bird’s nests back in the market in China, which banned the imports of the delicacy in July 2011 following the discovery of high levels of nitrite in cleaned Malaysian bird’s nests.
The ban hit the local swiftlet industry hard as China was reportedly the biggest importer of Malaysia’s bird’s nest products, with a trading value of about RM1bil annually.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar said the audit would be on “raw clean” bird’s nests, adding that the officials would be auditing 15 factories in Selangor, Sarawak, Pahang, Malacca, Johor, Penang and Kedah.
They would submit their findings to the China Food Safety Authority, the agency that issues health certificates.
He said: “Whether our bird’s nests get to re-enter China would depend on their reports. We are doing our best to help local swiftlet farmers affected by the ban,” he told newsmen after meeting the officials here.
Datuk Seri Noh said the audit followed the signing of a protocol on the matter by Malaysian and Chinese authorities in September last year.
He added that Malaysia was the first bird’s nests-producing country in the region the officials were visiting. “They gave us the priority over others because we have a very good relationship with their government,” he said.
Source: The Star（布城9日讯）6名中国官员周一抵马检验燕窝工厂，并在未来两周实地考察15家燕窝工厂，以确定加工厂燕窝处理燕窝加工符合中国进口条件。
6名官员分别来自中国国家认证认可监督管理委员会（CNCA）、中国检验检疫服务（CIQ）和中国检验检疫科学研究院（CAIQ），并以中国国家认证认可监督管理委员会注册管理部副主任李春光为首。
他们将从昨天至本月19日，前往雪州、砂拉越、彭亨、马六甲、柔佛、槟城和吉打7个州属，展开燕窝工厂检验工作。
农业及农基工业部长拿督斯里诺奥玛今天在农业部召开新闻发布会说，此次专家团到来将分别鉴定两项检验，即燕窝加工厂的审核以及食品安全检验。
他说，燕窝出口中国的事件已臻尾声，6名中国官员代表团将在这次的考察后，提呈燕窝工厂报告和食品安全报告给中国当局，然后再由中国食品安全单位发出证书，一旦本地燕窝商获得中国发出的食品安全证书后，就可将燕窝出口中国。
他续说，早前本地一共有20家燕窝工厂提出申请，当中有5家工厂因不符资格而被拒绝，中国当局只会检查15家燕窝工厂，因此，他希望这15家燕窝工厂可以获得代表团的认证，燕窝出口问题就迎刃而解。
他透露，据他了解，中国此趟的检验之旅，是该国针对燕窝课题而展开检验的首个国家，若有其他国家称获得中国同意出口燕窝至该国的话，是不确实的说法。
“中国是鉴于与我国友好的关系，而先到我国检验。”
他也说明，毛燕（未加工燕窝原材料）出口事宜并不包括在此行，目前交由马来西亚首相对华特使丹斯里黄家定处理。
文章摘引自：马来西亚《光华日报》，2013年4月10日。
