JAKARTA - The story of Maanyusi, a pearl craftsman from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), is clear evidence that local MSMEs can penetrate the international market with financial support and assistance from banks, such as those provided by PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BRI.
Through the brand I Love Mutiara, which he founded since 2011, Mahayasi has now been able to achieve a turnover of millions of rupiah and reach the global market. However, his business trip was not always smooth. Before pursuing the pearl accessories business, Mahayasi had tried his luck in the home deposit sector. Unfortunately, the effort did not last long.
From that experience, Mahayusi learned that market sustainability is an important factor in choosing the type of business. With this new understanding, Mahayasi has succeeded in developing its products until now known to domestic and foreign tourists.
'Accessory of pearls has an eternal appeal, especially for women who always want to look different at every opportunity. In this business, I can survive because women always need accessories," he said.
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As part of a strategy to reach a wider market, Mahayusi offers products with a very diverse price range, ranging from Rp. 100,000 to the most expensive, reaching Rp. 75 million, depending on the quality and uniqueness of each pearl. "Alhamdulillah, the development is quite good. On cruise ships (products sold) sometimes you can get 300 US dollars to 500 US dollars," said Mahayasi.
Furthermore, to get to know more customers, he also implements a more personal sales strategy by opening offline outlets at the Senggigi Art Market, Lombok, and routinely marketing their products directly to cruise ship tourists leaning on Lombok. He chose an offline sales strategy because Mahayasi wanted to provide services directly to customers, while ensuring they could see and choose pearls according to the characteristics desired.
He also said that after 14 years of running the I Love Mutiara business, his desire to develop his business was getting bigger. Finally, he decided to join as an MSME partner fostered by BRI by the end of 2024. BRI is indeed known as the most experienced bank in supporting MSMEs, with a wide network.
Although he has only joined for about three months, Maanyusi revealed that he has already felt the benefits of the BRI partnership program. One of them, had the opportunity to take part in the BRI MSME EXPO (RT) 2025 exhibition. "Usually, we have to have a loan first and then we can take part in MSME programs. However, BRI is not like that. To join the BRI MSME EXPO (RT), for example. Alhamdulillah, I immediately passed the curation even though I haven't applied for a loan yet," he said.
For Mahayasi, his participation in the BRI MSME EXPO (RT) 2025 event is an important momentum to expand business networks as well as collaborate with new partners. He is optimistic that the uniqueness of Lombok pearls can be increasingly widely known, both in the domestic market to the international market.
As is known, the BRI MSME EXPO (RT) 2025 event is a manifestation of BRI's commitment to encouraging more MSMEs to be fostered to advance to class. The event, which took place from January 30 to February 2, 2025 at ICE BSD City, was successfully attended by more than 69 thousand visitors, recorded transactions of more than Rp40 billion and succeeded in realizing export contracts of USD 90.6 million or around Rp1.5 trillion.
On a separate occasion, BRI Corporate Secretary Agustya Hendy Bernadi revealed that BRI will continue to be committed to serving and empowering MSME actors. "We believe that Indonesian MSMEs have great potential to compete in the global arena and become a driving force for the Indonesian economy to become more resilient," he said. (ADV)
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