LPEI Encourages Maros Aren Sugar To Reach The Asian And Middle East Export Markets

LPEI provides assistance and training to the penderes. (Photo: Aris Nurjani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI) or Indonesia Eximbank inaugurated the Aren Maros Sugar Foreign Exchange Village.

This program is a collaboration project of LPEI together with the Ministry of Finance and the Regional Government of South Sulawesi.

Meanwhile, sugar palm has become a natural sweetener used in various culinary delights in Indonesia and the world. However, more than just sweet taste, sugar palm also stores a wealth of health and is full of culture that is able to create its own attraction for its connoisseurs and even become a promising export commodity.

LPEI as a Financial Institution owned by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia carries out mentoring and training activities for users as a concrete step to preserve palm sugar commodities and encourage these commodities to go global.

In addition, Aren Maros Sugar Foreign Exchange Village houses around 2,220 penderes from 80 villages. About 55 percent of them are women and 80 percent of the penderes are known to have dropped out of school (SD/SMP).

The Head of the LPEI Consulting Services Division, Ilham Mustafa, said that the Aren Maros Sugar Foreign Exchange Village will open up opportunities for users to improve the welfare of the community while maintaining the forest environment and ecosystem in a sustainable manner.

Ilham said that currently, the Maros Foreign Exchange Village has exported to the Netherlands and South Korea with a capacity of 18 tons for each shipment. With assistance from LPEI, it is hoped that the production of palm sugar from the Maros region and its surroundings will increase and expand the export market to Asia and the Middle East.

"LPEI as an extension of the government is here to encourage increased competence and business capacity of the penderes until they can finally export independently and sustainably," said Ilham in his statement, Tuesday, May 7.

Dalam pengembangan Desa Devisa Sugar Aren Maros, LPEI bekerja sama dengan Golata Healthy Brand, lembaga pendamping yang sekaligus akan memfasilitasi hasil panen para petani dari Desa Devisa Sugar Aren Maros menuju pasar global.

Ilham said that LPEI will provide a series of training and assistance to users by involving competent resource persons in their fields.

Ilham hopes that the LPEI training and mentoring program is expected to be able to improve the knowledge of the players from both production, management and export procedures and is expected to improve the quality and production capacity in an environmentally friendly manner so that they can increase product competitiveness in the global market and become a model for sustainable village development.

He conveyed that in an effort to support the sustainability of the Maros Foreign sugar Foreign Exchange Village, organic farming practices and the management of responsible natural resources were involved.

"One of them is the management of waste produced by sugar palm to be processed into ethanol so that it can be reused, so that the circular and sustainable economy can be created," said Ilham.

Head of the South Sulawesi Customs Regional Office, Djaka Kusmartata, said that his party really welcomes the LPEI program to encourage the potential of Maros sugar so that it can improve the welfare of the community.

"This opportunity must be utilized properly by farmers. Customs and Excise will continue to help from start to finish so that the assistance of Foreign Exchange Villages from LPEI can be utilized properly," he said.