Accompanied By The GIS BUMN House, Ummi Salamah Successfully Sells Jamu 'Akar Jawi' To Mancanegara

JAKARTA - The commitment of PT Semen Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (SIG) in advancing MSMEs, continues to produce successful entrepreneurs such as Ummi Salamah, a producer of Akar Jawi herbal medicine who received guidance and assistance for BUMN (RB) houses managed by PT Semen Gresik as a subsidiary of GIS in Rembang, Central Java.

Ummi Salamah, a resident of Pamotan, Rembang, Central Java, started a Jawi Root business in 2011 by making a face mask to deal with acne on her face. Armed with knowledge and experience of mixing natural ingredients while still studying the Jamu Pharmacy Department at a state university in Yogyakarta, Ummi Salamah tries to mix masks for her face care.

"First of all, I made it for my own needs. But it turns out that many friends and neighbors are interested. From there I started making more for sale. Even when I entered the supermarket in Yogyakarta. In 2013, due to licensing, our face masks were not allowed to be marketed in big shops. Finally, I innovated to make drinks made from traditional spices with a capital of Rp. 200 thousand at that time," said Ummi Salamah, in a written statement, Friday, January 12.

Ummi Salamah revealed that the spice drink recipe was obtained from her mother-in-law who works as a herbal medicine seller, then adapted to the taste of the Rembang people's 'lide'. At first, Ummi Salamah ran Akar Jawi's business to fill her free time. Until 2020, she received information about RB Rembang and decided to join.

"Initially I entrusted the product to be sold at RB Rembang, thankfully the proceeds from the sale were satisfactory. I also received marketing assistance, bookkeeping, made customer databases, until I was invited to exhibitions that added experience and made my products widely known. Even the Yokarta Jawi drink products which were included in the Tong Tong Fair exhibition in the Netherlands in 2022 were sold out," said Ummi Salamah.

Seriousness in developing efforts has paid off. Currently, Akar Jawi has far developed. Assisted by 3 employees in the production and marketing process at the production house Omah Jamu Iqtaja, Akar Jawi has produced various variants of spice drinks, including nyit asem, red ginger, turmeric, white turmeric, meet dwarfs, ginger sereh, and wejeh (featurery for breast milk).

Massive marketing and sales activities, both offline and online by utilizing social media and marketplace platforms, made Akar Jawi successfully expand the market and attract customers from outside Rembang, such as Boyolali, Yogyakarta, Magelang, Purwakarta and Kalimantan. In fact, there are buyers to resell (resellers) to Malaysia.

According to Ummi Salamah, the Jawi Roots spice drink is widely popular because it is made with the best natural ingredients obtained directly from farmers in Pamotan, Banyuurip, Sulang and Pancur and is processed by a crystallization process that produces spice drinks without deposits, without preservatives or other additions, so that it is delicious, fresh and healthy.

The growing effort has raised Jawi Root turnover 4 times larger than the beginning of its construction, or grew 300%. Now Ummi Salamah can reap turnover of up to IDR 20 million every month.

"RB Rembang is very good for the development of MSMEs in Rembang because it helps marketing and sales. Its facilities are also complete, starting from the gallery for MSME product displays, meeting rooms, mini studios for product shootings, and computers for image editing. Hopefully RB Rembang continues to exist so that it can provide benefits for more MSMEs," said Ummi Salamah., now RB Rembang has assisted partners as many as 371 MSMEs who have all received Naik Class'' qualifications, with a total workforce absorption of 1.527 people.

"RB Rembang is proof of SIG's commitment to empowering MSMEs which is expected to contribute to economic growth and equity in Indonesia. With comprehensive coaching and assistance, MSMEs are encouraged to be able to run their business professionally with good managerial, technology literate and able to utilize digital infrastructure to support online marketing and sales, so that their products can be reached by local and foreign communities," said Vita Mahreyni.