BPDPKS And Aspectir Support Bikopra MSMEs Optimize Palm Oil Potential

A total of 120 participants came from ASPEKPIR member cooperatives. (Ist)

JAKARTA - The Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) together with the Association of Farmers of Palm Oil, People's Company (ASPEKPIR) Indonesia collaborated to hold technical guidance activities for Bikopra MSMEs for members of the Riau Province Aspempir.

The activity which took place at the Mutiara Merdeka Hotel Pekanbaru on November 21 to 23, 2022 was officially opened by the Governor of Riau, Drs. H. Syamsuar, MSI and attended by the Head of the UKMK Division of BPDPKS Helmi

The activity was attended by 120 participants from the cooperatives of members of ASPEKPIR Riau Province, representatives from the Riau provincial office and district offices in the Riau area.

Bikopra stands for Bangun Industri UMKM Sejahtera which was initiated by Aspempir to develop entrepreneurship in oil palm-producing villages by utilizing the potential of waste from palm oil to economic value.

Riau Governor Drs.H Syamsuar, MASI appreciates the implementation of Bikopra MSME Technical Guidance facilitated by the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) and hopes that what is planned from this technical guidance can become a reality so that plasma farmers in Riau Province in the future will be more advanced, stronger and become even bigger.

He explained that the Riau Provincial Government's policy regarding the development of palm oil is directed to support palm oil as a mainstay commodity and one of the country's main foreign exchange earners who has proven to be able to increase the income and welfare of palm oil plantations, especially in Riau Province.

According to him, in order to increase the added value of CPO products, the Riau Provincial Government through BUMD Riau plans to develop derivative products in the form of cooking oil with export quality with standards and reasonable prices with the main market share being local people of Riau Province.

This discourse, he said, was deemed natural to be developed because Riau Province, which is known to have the largest and main producer of Indonesian palm oil commodities, does not yet have an icon of palm oil derivative products. In the future, Riau is expected to be known as a producer of cooking oil and derivatives of other CPOs," he said as in a written statement sent to VOI.

Head of the KUKM Division of BPDPKS Helmi Muhansyah said BPDPKS always provides support for activities related to Twitter, including from the UKMK Division, one of which is how to build partnerships in order to develop small, medium enterprises and cooperatives.

"Support for the Bikopra Technical Guidance activity is one of the activities carried out with the hope that oil palm farmers, especially Aspempir members, can continue to develop. We hope that this activity will also be carried out in other areas in Indonesia," he said.

He assessed that Riau Province has the potential to develop this Bikopra because Riau Province is the main producer of Indonesian palm oil with its competent oil palm farmers. It's just a matter of how to collaborate together and most importantly how to continue to promote the goods of palm oil.

One of the challenges faced is about black campaigns or negative campaigns that are not only from outside Indonesia, and even come from within Indonesia because of the poor understanding or perception of palm oil commodities. "Well, how can we build this negative perception to be positive by promoting the goods of palm oil," he said.

He hopes that through this Bimtek, it can produce village-based MSMEs, even in the future it can become export villages, foreign exchange villages based on palm oil, especially from Riau Province in collaboration with associations.

Aspekpir General Chair Setiyono in his remarks said that the large number of business actors had a good impact on the progress of the nation, especially if business actors manage the business development they run well through the current technology assistance. "One of them is the presence of Agribusiness waste management in oil palm plantation areas is integrated with cattle, this program is in a gas in Riau Province by ASPEKPIR with the name BIKOPRA," he said.

With the tangible manifestation that the pilot project in one village utilizing palm waste can arouse enthusiasm for developing cattle populations and can develop MSMEs in rural areas to improve the welfare of families and communities, even more broadly supporting the National economy.

Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture has determined the area of cover of Indonesia's oil palm plantations covering an area of 16.38 million hectares spread across 26 provinces. As stated in the Decree of the Minister of Agriculture No.833/KPTS/SR.020/M/12/2019. And stated that Riau oil palm plantations are the largest in Indonesia with an area of 20.08 % or about 3.38 million hectares.