Sido Appears With The Ministry Of Cooperatives And SMEs Committed To Help Herbal Farmers And MSMEs

Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki, together with Director Sido Muncul Irawan Hidayat. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Industri Jamu Dan Farmasi Sido Muncul Tbk (SIDO) together with the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Kemenkop UKM) are committed to helping herbal farmers, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. This commitment was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding some time ago.

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (MenKopUKM) Teten Masduki said this effort was a follow-up to the signing of the MSME development cooperation between the KemenkopUKM and PT Sido Muncul Tbk some time ago.

The agreed cooperation includes agreement between spice farmers and farmer cooperatives with Sido Muncul as offtakers for spice products produced by farmers.

"Farmers and farmer cooperatives are a chain of industrial supply or supply chain, especially for Sido Muncul," said Coordinating Minister for SMEs Teten Masduki after a dialogue with spice farmers and farmer cooperatives, in the Sido Muncul factory area, Semarang Regency, Tuesday, August 8.

At the event attended by the Regent of Semarang Ngesti Nugraha, Minister Teten added, if farmers' products have guaranteed quality, it will be easier to absorb offtakers, in addition to banks, it is also lighter to provide financing at the onfarm (farm) level. For example, through KUR clusters whose ceiling can reach IDR 500 million.

"We also strengthen the cooperation of farmers through LPDB-KUMKM revolving funds. It could be as offtakers, or to buy spice and herbal processing machines to have Sido Muncul standards," said the Coordinating Minister.

Cooperation also includes the provision of access for farmers to be able to take advantage of the results of research and research on Sido Muncul spices at the Indonesian Spice Research Center (PPRI) and nursery (Nursery).

"Farms have access to get superior seeds or seeds," said Minister Teten.

Selain itu, Sido Muncul akan menjadi Bapa Timbilan bagi pelaku UMKM, khususnya yang bergerak di sektor makanan dan minuman herbal (jamu).

This collaboration with Sido Muncul also reached the level of packaging and stability testing.

"So, it can be scientifically measured when the product expires. So, the standard for MSME products is not inferior to the manufacturing industry," said Minister Teten.

Minister Teten ensured that technical assistance and assistance cooperation from Sido Muncul would be created so that MSME products with industrial standards and had high economic value.

The Coordinating Minister for Cooperation also believes that this kind of cooperation will have a positive impact on MSME players, because they create the concept of a large business partnership (local raw industry) and MSMEs from providing raw materials to entering industrial supply chains.

"Business modules like this will strengthen the foundations of the national industry. As in Japan, the raw materials for the automotive industry there are supplied by MSMEs," said the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture.

Meanwhile, the President Director of PT Sido Muncul, Irwan Hidayat, added that in the cooperation, KemenkopUKM acted as the coordinator, while Sido Muncul was involved in the technical role of production from processing raw materials to packaging.

"The results of our research and spice research in Sido Muncul will be distributed to farmer cooperatives for use," said Irwan.

More than that, MSMEs who are food and beverage business actors (specifically those made from herbal/spicia) will receive technical production assistance, as well as packaging methods, including test-stability of products carried out at the Sido Muncul laboratory.

Irwan hopes that the experience of Sido Muncul, which has been in an herbal business since 1951, can be used as a reference in this kind of cooperation.

"MSME actors can also learn directly in terms of the production process in Sido Muncul. Hopefully, the class of MSME products can increase, so that public trust will also increase," said Irwan.