Together With The Ministry Of Cooperatives And SMEs, EFishery Launches Cooperatives To Facilitate The Downstreaming Process Of Cultivation

CEO & Co-Founder eFishery Gibran Huzaifah (second from the right) and Menkop UKM Teten Masduki (second from the left). Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI

BANDUNG - eFishery, which is an accultural technology company from Indonesia officially launched Multi-Party Cooperatives Growing with Cultivators. The establishment of this cooperative was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM).

"The Multi-Party Cooperative Grows with Cultivators adopting technology and is integrated with the eFishery digital ecosystem to facilitate the downstream process of cultivators who have become members of cooperatives," said CEO & Co-Founder eFishery Gibran Huzaifah at a press conference in Bandung, West Java, Wednesday, October 11.

Gibran said that the launch of this cooperative would later be able to gather cultivators and empower farmers through technology.

Thus, all cultivators, feed agents, buyers, and suppliers can all be joined in this cooperative with transactions that can also be carried out in cooperatives.

"(Launching this cooperative) so that all line players can be more prosperous. So, collaboration is the spirit of the cooperative," said Gibran.

He added, with this cooperative, it is hoped that it can increase the business scale of fish cultivators.

"That's right, the goal is (to accelerate the Kabayan program). In Kabayan, our cultivators are only 30 thousand, while those who are members of the eFishery are almost 200 thousand, and there are 3.4 million cultivators in Indonesia," he said.

"So, partnerships with the ministry of cooperatives and financial institutions that are indeed under the government can encourage more production acceleration by providing access to financing to or cultivation through Kabayan," added Gibran.

The Kabayan program itself has reached 1,600 fish cultivators who are part of the eFishery ecosystem. Through the Kabayan program, fish cultivators in the eFishery ecosystem can apply for loans ranging from IDR 3 million to IDR 100 million with a tenor of one to six months.

On the same occasion, Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki said, from an economic activity involving many parties, it is most suitable for multi-party cooperatives to use.

"So, the economic circular will be more optimally used to enlarge all parties involved in this business," he said.

Teten said that his party will continue to support the strengthening of the fishery production sector ecosystem in eFishery, because it involves small farmers and spreads across various regions of Indonesia.

"With digital applications, eFishery can consolidate and aggregate products, connect them to the market, to finance," he added.