Health Impact more focused on marketing events

       Health Impact, a supplementaryfood manufacturer, has set aside 30 per cent of its estimated sales of Bt360 million this year for marketฌing, with an increased focus on events and nonmass media.
       Marketing director Kannika Ekkasak yesterday said the market value for supplementary food for health purposes in the first half of the year had increased by 10 per cent from the same period last year, while supplementary food for beauty purposes had grown at a slower rate due to the tough economic climate.
       "Health Impact, which is a small manufacturer of supplementary foods, has seen room for growth in the health segment this year," she said.
       The company yesterday launched an innovative supplementary calciฌumbased food product under the Solucal brand to serve healthconฌscious customers.
       This follows the success of the company's CalG, aimed at enrichฌing joints and launched a few years ago.
       Solucal is different from products already on the market, as it contains collagen in order to absorb the calฌcium more easily, said Kannika.
       Health Impact targets Bt20 milฌlion in revenue from Solucal this year, acquiring a 5percent share of the calciumbased supplementaryfood market, which is valued at Bt400 million.
       Besides supplementary foods, the company makes healthcare products such as mattresses and cosmetics.
       It generated revenue of Bt300 million last year, of which 40 per cent was contributed by suppleฌmentary foods, 30 per cent by cosฌmetics and the remaining 30 per cent by other healthcare products and the export market. The compaฌny expects revenue to grow by 20 per cent this year.
       "Revenue in the first half of the year increased roughly 20 per cent from the same period last year. The support factor is that this year we have expanded our distribution channels to modern trade stores.
       Last year, we sold our supplemenฌtary products through drugstores and hospitals only.
       "We can say that we have had no impact from the economic slowฌdown and are very confident that our revenue this year will grow as we expect," Kannika said.

Bird's nest frenzy grips Malaysian town

       Thousands of bird "motels" have opened across Malaysia to lure the swiftlets whose nests are harvested to make bird's nest soup, a costly delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
       But as the business booms and flocks of swiftlets - who make the nests out of their saliva - descend on towns and villages, the noisy, messy practice has triggered a wave of protests.
       In the heart of the coastal town of Klang, southwest of the capital Kuala Lumpur, the owner of the Goldcourse Hotel has converted part of the multistorey building into a swiftlet "motel".
       To entice the swiftlets to build their nests in their concrete home - and not their natural cave habitat - from sunup to sun-down a soundtrack of shrill bird noises including mating calls is blasted from speakers.
       Nearby, other entrepreneurs have opened competing ventures by turning four-storey shophouses into bird havens,and the cacophony and shower of bird droppings is alienating those living and working nearby.
       "The sound is so loud and irritating,and the bird droppings can be harmful to our health," said local resident Abdul Hamid Abdullah as he watched the swif-tlets dart in and out of the buildings.
       "These birds build their nests in caves.That is where they should be," the 46-year-old told AFP.
       Malaysia's swiftlet industry began in the 1980s but gained momentum after the 1997 Asian financial crisis when entrepreneurs converted the interiors of abandoned properties into bird motels.
       Fans of the gelatinous soup, which is popular in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, say it can stave off ageing, boost sex drive, prevent lung disease and enhance the complexion.
       A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the small,cup-shaped nests can fetch 4,000 ringgit ($1,130), and the combination of big profits and a lack of legislation has seen countless swiftlet "farms" established illegally in populated areas.
       Kenneth Khoo, from the Small and Medium Industries Association in northern Penang, told AFP that the global trade in raw bird's nests was estimated at 20 billion ringgit ($5.7 billion).
       "Swiftlet farming in Malaysia is a sunrise industry. Demand far exceeds supply as more wealthy Chinese emerge," he said, adding that bird's nest soup remains a status-booster on business menus in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
       Khoo said Indonesia "controls up to 70% of the business in the region, sourcing its bird's nests from both caves and farms, while the other two main producers are Thailand and Malaysia."
       He estimated that there are at least 35,000 swiftlet farms in Malaysia, only about 4,500 with legal permits, in a business worth 800 million to 1.2 billion ringgit.
       But as the industry expands along the east and west coasts of peninsular Malaysia, opposition to the swiftlet farms is growing louder and environmentalists are demanding a complete ban.
       There are also allegations of cruelty as some "farmers" reputedly destroy chicks and fertilised eggs in order to harvest the nests at times when prices are high.
       Conservation group Friends of the Earth has condemned the trade and called on the government to close down the proliferating swiftlet farms.
       "This rather impetuous booming industry has led to complaints from the public due to the nuisance, health hazards and the number of bird hotels coming up," said Mohamad Idris, president of the group's Malaysian branch.
       "Collectors may not wait long enough for the young to fledge, often throwing the chicks onto the ground or leaving them to die after taking the nests," he said.
       "In view of the problems faced by many in the farming of swiftlets and from the welfare point of view of the birds, we would like to call for a ban on all farming of swiftlets."