Taking Advantage Of BRI's KUR, This Female Entrepreneur Successfully Turned Into A Various FOOD Processing That Was Popular

SLEMAN - Siti Fatimah, a female entrepreneur and housewife from Hargobinangun Village, Sleman, succeeded in turning a simple opportunity into a local culinary business called Pawon Teges. Although on a home scale, this local commodity-based business has given birth to a variety of innovative products and is the main support for the family's economy to be able to send their children away thanks to the business they run.

Siti said that it started with a local processed cooking competition held by the Sleman Agriculture Service in 2018. At that time, he was starting to be interested in exploring the potential of kelor leaves that had been underused by local residents. However, the process is not instant, which took him eight months to find the right measure and prescription until the first product was born, namely a benchmark drink that is in demand by the market.

However, when his efforts began to grow, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With 1,000 Morbs already planted and one of the tenants in the food court has been rented, Siti has to rack her brain when everything suddenly stops completely due to activity restrictions. From that limitation, he actually found an opportunity.

"I am also looking for a strategy, where I dry more and more kelor leaves, then I make flour and Moringa tea which has a long lasting force, followed by Mornary meatballs and tofu meatballs for daily consumption which are entrusted to stalls in the market," he said.

Slowly, various Kelor-based products began to get a place in the hearts of local consumers and became known outside the region. Now, Pawon Teges products themselves have penetrated markets in Jakarta, Tangerang, Malang, Bondowoso, Sulawesi, to Papua. In fact, flour and tea kelor are mainstay products for consumers with high blood and cholesterol due to their health benefits.

Behind this achievement, Siti did not deny the importance of the role of People's Business Credit (KUR) from BRI which helped her maintain stability in the cash flow, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Especially when her business experienced ups and downs, access to capital became a breath of fresh air for the sustainability of her business. Siti also admitted that the KUR application process at BRI was relatively easy and uncomplicated. Initially, KUR loans were from Rp. 10 million, then increased by Rp. 25 million to Rp. 50 million. Anyway, the total I got was Rp. 250 million. The funds are very helpful for the development of my products and operations, "explained Siti.

In addition to KUR support, Siti also revealed that BRI also provides space for its products to be better known to the wider community. One of them is through collaboration in the event bazaar for government visits, where the tea kernel product Pawon Teges was chosen as one of the contents of the souvenir of the event.

Although this collaboration is still limited, Siti is optimistic that in the future there will be more opportunities to expand market reach through collaboration with BRI. In addition to providing capital, BRI is also actively conducting training and bazaar events as a forum for us micro-enterprises to be able to develop and be known more widely," he said

On a separate occasion, BRI Corporate Secretary Agustya Hendy Bernadi emphasized that Siti's story is a real example of the success of micro entrepreneurs who are able to rise and develop through empowerment from BRI.

BRI continues to be committed to supporting MSME entrepreneurs through easier-to-reach access to financing. Through the KUR program, BRI hopes to help entrepreneurs expand their business scale and improve product quality to be more competitive in a more competitive market," said Hendy. (ADV)