The Ministry Of Cooperatives Encourages The Downstreaming Of The Superior Commodity Of The Red And White Kopdes-Based Region

Assistant Deputy for Production Development of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Elviandi (photo: Doc. Kemenkop)

The Ministry of Cooperatives (Kemenkop) encourages the acceleration of operationalization and development of the Merah Putih Village/Sub-District Cooperative through the development of business based on downstreaming of leading commodities in various regions.

"Various strategic steps in supporting the business growth of the Red and White Kopdes continue to be taken," said Assistant Deputy for Production Development of the Ministry of Cooperatives Elviandi, at the Socialization of Business Development of the Red and White Kopdes Through Downstreaming of Superior Commodities, in Pekanbaru City, Riau Province, Saturday, October 11.

Elviandi explained that this activity aims to strengthen the understanding of the management and members of the Red and White Kopdes in identifying and developing a business based on downstreaming of regional superior commodities in the form of palm oil, log wood, and coconut.

"This is because these commodities make a significant contribution to downstream investment reaching Rp6.2 trillion until the first semester of 2025," said Elviandi.

According to Elviandi, the implementation of this activity is expected to determine piloting in encouraging the downstream program for leading commodities at the Red and White Kopdes.

"Not only that, this socialization activity is also expected to increase the capacity of the Red and White Kopdes management in developing commodity downstream potential which will contribute greatly to the growth of the economy of the village and sub-district communities," said Elviandi.

Riau Province is known to have great palm oil potential. According to BPS data in 2024, the area of palm oil in Riau Province reaches approximately 3,41 million hectares with a total production of 9.37 million tons.

"This figure shows that Riau Province is the largest national CPO producer," Elviandi said.

Currently, Kemenkop is focusing on building the Crude Palm Oil (CPO) factory because from CPO it can be further processed into other products such as packaged cooking oil, soap, cosmetics, to biomass energy.

"In addition, there are also other commodity potentials that can be developed through the Red and White Kopdes," said Elviandi.

The Ministry of Cooperatives has encouraged the piloting of the construction of the CPO factory in West Kotawaringin Regency managed by the Sekunder Karya Sawit Mandiri Jaya Cooperative (KSMJ) which was founded by seven primary cooperatives based on community consolidation with a land area of 6,000 hectares.

For Riau Province, it is planned to make a piloting located in the Riau Province. This step aims to provide added value and certainty for the people's palm oil plantation market.

"So, it is hoped that the Red and White Kopdes which are engaged in palm oil commodities can be involved in the sustainable national palm supply chain," said Elviandi.

At least, according to Elviandi, there are several steps to realize the leading commodity downstream program for the Red and White Kopdes in Riau. Among them, increasing production capacity with the right processing technology is intended so that the Red and White Kopdes products are of high value.

Next, strengthening the capacity of the Red and White Kopdes management is a priority. "This step is supported by the presence of Business Assistant or Business Assistant of 187 people in Riau, where 1 BA accompanies 10 Red and White Kopdes," added Elviandi.

In addition, Elviandi continued, the deconcentration fund intended for Business Assistant and Project Management Officer (PMO), must be able to be optimized to provide assistance to the Red and White Kopdes in utilizing the potential of regional superior commodities.

Then, encourage the digitization of the Red and White Kopdes, where of the 1,866 Red and White Kopdes in Riau, only 810 Red and White Kopdes have been registered. This means that there are still 1,057 Red and White Kopdes that need to be encouraged to immediately register for SimkoPDes.

"This is important because Simkopdes is the entrance to access financing and with BA it is hoped that it can help accelerate the registration," explained Elviandi.

Another step is that access to financing for the Red and White Kopdes needs to have a business plan with a business proposal that is in accordance with the potential of the village. Then, all parties such as Himbara banks and Regional Owned Enterprises (BUMD) can continue to encourage cooperatives to become one of the piloting programs based on regional superior commodities.

"No less important, the need for ISPO or RSPO standardization in oil palm plantations, so that the resulting FFB becomes a quality CPO and has high competitiveness in the global market," said Elviandi.