Tenacity and patience are key in building a business. Such are the guidelines that Sunarti, one of the beneficiaries of PT. Indexim Coalindo in collaboration with Bina Swadaya Konsultan.
The Cassava chip business he pursued finally developed with enthusiasm to learn and patience in building his business.
“If it weren’t like that, maybe I wouldn’t be like now, let alone I’m an immigrant,” he said.
At the end of 2011, Sunarti began to set foot on the land of Borneo. She left her homeland with her husband and child in Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta. She joined the transmigration program to East Kutai, which was then placed in Kaliorang Village, Kaliorang District, East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan.
Armed with her skills, in early 2012, Sunarti and her husband started a cassava chips business. However, the business experienced obstacles because cassava raw materials were not available at the location where he lived. Sunarti said at that time. Many residents planted banana trees, palm oil, rice and a few vegetables.
“It used to be difficult here, there was no cassava finding, but slowly my father and I went around every time I went around the chips to the shops while looking for cassava, finally from there we knew the cassava farmers”, he recalled when he first started the business.
Armed with tenacity and never giving up, slowly but surely, the cassava chip business he carried out began to bear fruit. The peak occurred in 2015, and Sunarti could finally reap the rewards.
“Now, almost every day of production, as long as there is cassava, it is always production”, said Sunarti, who pioneered the cassava chips business with the label “Dua Putra”.
They can produce up to 5 quintals more cassava in a business week. The shops that became partners eventually increased to outside Kaliorang District.
“There used to be more than 30 dozen shops, not only in Kaliorang but also in Sangkulirang and Bengalon,” he said.
But with age, the couple began to reduce their production capacity and partner stores. Currently, they only leave their products in 15 stores in Kaliorang District.
“The father is no longer strong when he travels far away. Power has also decreased if production is now twice weekly, once production is not up to 1 quintal, “explained Sunarti.
He explained. Currently, many residents open cassava chip businesses. According to him, almost every village there already sells cassava chips with their respective labels.
Seeing the number of residents who sell sinking chips business, Sunarti feels happy and grateful to be able to join PT—Indexim Coalindo, in collaboration with Bina Swadaya Konsultan, with mentoring training in terms of better packaging.
“My chip packaging was normal in the past, but now the plastic is thick, and there are stickers. It’s good. It’s like a gift shop,” he said.
Furthermore, he also hopes that the Business Incubation House (RIB) Gallery will be a place to market MSME products so that they can increase the marketing of their products.
“I used to want to have PIRT, I had participated in socialisation, but no one helped. Now it’s the same as Indexim through the assistance of BSK. Assisted by sales at RIB, who knows that many Indexim employees like it, sales are getting smoother and more, my father and I don’t need to travel far anymore, “he concluded.
