Pertamina's Fostered MSMEs Become the Target of Homecomers During Eid Al-Fitr Season

Jakarta, April 19, 2024 - Sales of products from Pertamina's fostered small, micro, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) doubled compared to the previous year, attracted by travelers as souvenirs of choice during this year's Eid al-Fitr homecoming season.

Vice President of Corporate Communication of Pertamina, Fadjar Djoko Santoso, stated that Pertamina supports MSMEs to produce more and improve their quality in preparation for the Eid al-Fitr holiday season. Pertamina provides support through training and various facilities to support product development, from business legality, business certification, and digitization to funding support for its fostered MSMEs.

"Pertamina's support follows our commitment to continuously strengthen mutually beneficial collaborations with MSMEs to achieve larger sustainable development goals (SDGs). Through successful collaboration processes, Pertamina contributes to improving the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG)," Fadjar emphasized.

Putra Abadi, one of Pertamina's fostered MSMEs, recorded a doubling of sales compared to the previous year, further strengthening its position as a major player in the local and international coffee market after successfully entering the Australian market through the Indonesian embassy in 2017. Based in Pagaralam, South Sumatra, they offer various types of coffee that interest travelers, including robusta, arabica, peaberry, and wine coffee.

"In addition to coffee, we also provide various snacks, ranging from purple sweet potato macaroni, Cilembu sweet potato and pandan macaroni, various banana chips, cassava chips, and potato chips, as well as peanut crackers, anchovies, fish dumplings, spinach sticks, fish sticks, and onion sticks. And the newest addition is a derivative product of coffee, namely coffee sticks," said the owner of Putra Abadi, Dionisio Toty Tiansyah Putra.

Dion, familiarly, the UMK Academy 2023 Champion from the Go Online class, mentioned that buyers started flocking during the return flow or Eid until H+7 when travelers would return to their hometowns. "Our store is open on the second day of Eid, and buyers were flocking to buy coffee and various snacks, especially purple sweet potato macaroni. Specifically during Eid, buyers usually purchase snack products per kilogram, and so far, two tons of snacks have been sold. While 500 packs of 250g coffee have been sold," he added.

According to him, the coffee and snack production processes he sells are the collaboration results with farmers and empowering housewives in the surrounding area. Thus, Putra Abadi's business can help the economy in the Pagaralam area.

The same was felt by Sofyani Mirah, the owner of Bananania, who experienced a 50% surge in demand from last year, especially the many travelers and vacationers in Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Solo. The products include snacks such as banana crackers, cookies made from banana flour, and five-flavored banana chips, including chocolate, cheese, honey, balado, and garlic salt.

Sofy explained that Bananania focuses on processing products based on bananas. Besides being a native Indonesian local fruit where Indonesia ranks as the 3rd largest banana producer in the world, bananas also contain fiber, potassium, and are rich in vitamins, and are processed using selected ingredients and guaranteed quality for quality and healthy product assurance.

"All Bananania products could be found in souvenir shops in Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Solo. Banana chips are the most sought-after product by buyers. So far, five thousand banana chip packs were sold, doubled from last year's Eid," Sofy said.

Currently, she is researching snacks for diabetic patients and preparing complementary food flour for breastfeeding, which is projected to help reduce the prevalence of stunting. She does all this by empowering women living around her production kitchen. In line with the principle of "everything must be useful," the remaining Bananania production is managed as animal feed and liquid organic fertilizer.

"Bananania products can be purchased from e-commerce platforms, Instagram, and Facebook. In addition, we also collaborate with several hotels, supermarkets, and souvenir shops," said the woman who has exported her products to Japan, Australia, Malaysia, and Egypt.

Pertamina, as a leading company in the energy transition, is committed to supporting the Net Zero Emission 2060 target by continuously promoting programs that directly impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievement. All these efforts align with Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) implementation across all Pertamina's business lines and operations.**