NSLIC/NSELRED SOUTHEAST SULAWESI CHAMPIONS Processed Coconut Enterprise 'Rusdar Jaya' Bombana district
Rusli (57) is the only business owner in Bombana who produce processed coconut into Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO). Rusli began his business since 2014 in Laea Village, South Poleang Sub-district. Rusli learned about VCO production after attending training from the Southeast Sulawesi Office of Industry and Trade in 2011. Since then, Rush has been actively developing his making business VCO until today, with an average production of 800 - 1,000 litres/month with the distribution area includes Bombana, Kendari, and Makassar. Rusli secured a business license (SITU) under the brand of Rusdar Jaya in 2015. Thanks to his VCO product "As Shofa", Rush is often invited by relevant government agencies to participate in local SMEs exhibition featuring products from the district, provincial and national levels. Today, Rusli’s sales have reached about IDR 60 million per month. Under the support of NSLIC/NSELRED, Rusli began to empower the coconut farmers in his village to produce and market VCO through a mutually beneficial partnership.
POTENTIAL AND CHALLENGES OF PROCESSED COCONUT BUSINESS The total size of coconut gardens in Bombana is 14,650 hectares. According to the data of Bombana’s Agriculture Office, out of the 22 sub-districts, six sub-districts have high productivity local cultivars, i.e. South Poleang (4,050 ha), West Poleang (2,254 ha), Tontonunu (1,643 ha), Central Poleang (1,050 ha), South Kabaena (957 ha), and East Poleang (650 ha). The potential of coconut agribusiness development in Bombana is enormous. However, today the majority of the local coconut farmers still rely on the processing of the coconut into black and white copra with lower selling prices. The coconut commodity, however, can be developed into derivative products such as VCO with higher selling value in the market. Some of the challenges faced today include creating a marketing partnership among the local SMEs. Improving the quality of processed coconut products such as VCO produced by Rusdar Jaya is also still needed, especially in term of quality standardization, implementation of good manufacturing practices (GMP) and Halal certification for the products to have market competitiveness and able to penetrate the modern market. Another aspect is enhancing the production process to meet environmental sustainability.
Rusli shorting out the quality coconut before being processed into VCO and coconut oil.
"Under the support of NSLIC/NSELRED, I gained a lot of knowledge about entrepreneurship and being more motivated to build partnerships and empower the local SMEs through venture production of processed coconut. It was also an interesting experience for me because it was the first time I provided a VCO production training to the local SMEs. All this time, I have always been a participant only." (Rusli, processed coconut and VCO entrepreneur, 'Rusdar Jaya', Bombana district)
NSLIC/NSELRED INTERVENTION
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
In late May 2019, the Multi-stakeholder Forum as the partner of NSLIC/NSELRED in Bombana agreed that refined coconut oil products such as VCO will be the pilot support of NSLIC/NSELRED for local economic development. Furthermore, in September 2019, NSLIC/NSELRED facilitated the capacity building of local SMEs through VCO production training attended by 18 business owners (11 women and 7 men).
To meet the market demand, Rusli of Rusdar Jaya has hired six employees (5 women and 1 man) with a monthly salary of IDR 1 million per person. After securing a business license (SITU) in 2015, Rusdar Jaya was licensed under the processed coconut processing industry with registration number 205.740.603.000.118.
At the training, Rusli was the main resource person on processing coconut into VCO according to the industry standards that have been carried out Rusdar Jaya. The post-training developments are quite prospective as the VCO production now reaches 600-800 litres per month. The uptake of local raw materials has reached 250-350 coconuts per day (13 coconuts can produce about 1 litre of VCO). The production, however, still relies on manual coconut processing with a fermentation method without preservatives.
Under the assistance of NSLIC/NSELRED, since September 2019 Rusli began to partner with local SMEs and provided them with training on VCO processing. As a result, three VCO SMEs in Laea Village, South Poleang Sub-district, two of them are women-owned, have been producing VCO and partnered with Rusdar Jaya in marketing their products. To further boost Rusli’s motivation, NSLIC/NSELRED also provided entrepreneurship and business skills through CEFE training to learn about business mapping using canvas models, business planning and digital applications for business. NSLIC/NSELRED and the District Office of Industry, Trading and Cooperatives continue to strengthen the institutional capacity of the coconut SMEs in Bombana district.