Here's The Efforts Of The Ministry Of Industry To Boost The Downstreaming Of The Sago Industry

Director General of Agro Industry of the Ministry of Industry Putu Juli Ardika. Photo: Doc. Ministry of Industry

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) continues to encourage the development of sago downstream in the country through supporting increased sago star production and diversification of sago pati processed products.

Director General of Agro Industry of the Ministry of Industry Putu Juli Ardika said that in 2023, his party will work with several large industries producing sago bags to increase production utilization.

"Currently, the utilization of national sago industry production is still very low, which is below 30 percent. This is the impact of limited industries to obtain sago empiruk raw materials," Putu said in a written statement, quoted on Saturday, March 9.

He explained that the sago emplur has properties that are easily damaged because it is quickly oxidized. Thus, the industry cannot obtain raw materials for sago empir from remote locations.

Therefore, the government is working with the sago star industry to develop the sago bag industry business model by using wet sago for the production of MSMEs as raw material for the sago bag industry.

"Utilization of MSME wet sago can slow down the oxidation process. Thus, the reach of raw materials for the sago industry is getting wider and can provide added value to sago farmers," he said.

In addition to developing the sago business model, Putu said, the Ministry of Industry also supports the diversification of sago pati processed products.

Putu assessed that currently the sago regent is widely known as the material for making papeda. However, currently, the sago processing industry has started to grow into a modern product, such as instant noodles and analog rice.

"This processed food product has the potential to become the main food to replace rice, especially during the scarcity of rice," he said.

Furthermore, Putu said, sago has the potential to be developed as an alternative food for the national main source of carbohydrates because Indonesia has sago land which is estimated to reach 5.5 million hectares (ha).

"The area of the sago land can be a large food reserve for carbohydrate sources for the country and the world. However, domestic sago processing has not been massively carried out," he added.