Expo expected to help boost flower business

JAKARTA (JP): Rawa Belong used to be an ordinary residential area, mostly home to the native Betawi until the 1980s. The locals who would pedal their bicycles several kilometers away to Cikini where they traded flowers, decided to run their businesses closer to home.

Satiri, 48, who has been in the business for 33 years, said most natives of Rawa Belong, now known as the largest and most popular flower market in the capital, earned a living as flower traders.

His father was also a flower trader, he told The Jakarta Post on Friday, a few hours before Governor Sutiyoso visited the site to inaugurate a 10-day exhibition of flowers and decorative plants.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the popular flower market in the city was in Cikini, Central Jakarta, he said.

"All the flowers and plants from Bandung, Sukabumi, or Sindanglaya (all in West Java) were brought to Cikini. From there, traders distributed flowers and plants to clients across the capital," the senior Rawa Belong trader said.

Bambang Wisanggeni, an executive of the city's Flower and Decorative Plant Promotion Center located on Jl. Haji Sulaiman in the Rawa Belong area of Sukabumi Utara subdistrict in West Jakarta, supported Satiri's account.

"From Cikini, the traders then moved their business to along Jl. Kebon Jeruk (now Jl. Rawa Belong) before relocating to the (city-sponsored) center in 1989," Bambang said.

With a wide smile on his face, Satiri recalled how his father used to ride his aging bicycle when he picked up flowers in Cikini and delivered them to clients, including several Chinese- owned florists in the Chinatown area.

Satiri often accompanied his father with his own bike.

"I remembered that there were also at least 30 florists along Jl. Samanhudi in the Pasar Baru area," Satiri said.

In the 1980s, Rawa Belong traders began to doubt their future in Cikini as local hoodlums often extorted money from them.

The seniors and leaders of Rawa Belong community held a special meeting to discuss the problem.

They then decided to run their businesses near their residences in Rawa Belong and asked suppliers from outside Jakarta to deliver the flowers and plants to Jl. Kebon Jeruk instead of Cikini.

"The reason was very simple. Kebon Jeruk was our own area so no thugs would dare try to get money off of us," Satiri said.

The new market grew so fast that several years later hundreds of traders were lining both sides of the street, offering a wide range of flowers, from roses and orchids to jasmine, tuberoses, lilacs, gladiola and lilies.

Consequently, the street was clogged daily with traffic.

In an effort to ease the congestion, the government relocated the traders in 1989 to the city-sponsored 14,000-square-meter Flower and Decorative Plant Promotion Center.

The busy hours of the area are from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. But visitors can still buy flowers until late in the evening as most traders run their business from the front of their home.

The early days of flower trading along Rawa Belong helped many locals, including Satiri, who was able to raise five daughters.

But he feels those days are gradually fading into the past.

"These days I get between Rp 200,000 and Rp 250,000 a day, even though operational costs total about 300,000 a day," he said.

Fierce business competition is the cause, Satiri said.

"The number of florists operating in Jakarta has increased," he said.

Srikanti Wiwahari, head of the City Agriculture Agency, said during the opening ceremony of the flower exposition that her office would develop the market into a tourist attraction with other flower centers nearby, such as those at Meruya Selatan.

"We expect the fair to increase business opportunities for both growers and traders of flowers and decorative plants and to establish a more conducive environment for the business," she said.

Rawa Belong is now a distribution center for flowers and plants from Bandung, Cipanas, Garut and Sukabumi in West Java, Bandungan, Magelang and Tegal, Central Java, and Pasuruan and Surabaya in East Java.

The market earns Rp 500 million for orchids during its high season in November and December and Rp 100 million during the low season.

Meanwhile, other flowers generate Rp 1 billion and Rp 200 million respectively.

Also speaking was a representative of the growers and traders, Eeng Suparna.

"We are very grateful because the market has enabled thousands of residents to work despite the prolonged crisis," he said to Governor Sutiyoso, who was also present at the ceremony.

"But to provide more opportunities to us, I ask you to donate a computer and give us Internet access so we can offer flowers on the Internet," Eeng said.

Sutiyoso immediately agreed to the request.

"How much do you need to buy a computer?" the governor asked.

"I think Rp 10 million would be enough," said Eeng.

"All right then," Sutiyoso said. He turned to the assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, Ongky Sukasah, and said, "Ongky, you must ensure the growers get the money." (zen/nvn)