Lack of cooperation hampers Garut dodol industry

GARUT, West Java (JP): Inefficiencies in supply and fluctuations in the price of raw materials, technical problems in the production process and in packaging, and limitations in availability of financial support continue to haunt small businesses. These obstacles are hard to surmount, particularly if technical support and assistance, which has been provided to some small dodol and dried banana chip makers in Garut through a cooperative Indonesian-German venture, is not continued.

The program, known as the Small-Scale Agroindustry and Agribusiness Development Project, covers West Java and brings together Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture and Germany's Ministry of Economic Cooperation. The project has been carried out in Garut for the past two years by the German development agency GTZ/GFA. Two of the 35 businesses being helped here are Aneka Sari, which produces dodol cakes, and Selamat, which makes dried banana chips.

Along with dodol cakes, Garut is one of Indonesia's pockets of small-scale industry and supports hundreds of local workers. Aside from providing a means of slowing down regional migration to urban areas, these locally-based small industries have also shown themselves capable of encouraging the skills of local entrepreneurs. Data from the local office of the Ministry of Industry shows that there are currently 51 dodol manufacturers in Garut, with 35 being able to make dodol cakes under their own brand names. Most of the other 16 companies are actually new businesses formed either by former staff or family members of the 35 larger dodol firms.

With about 75,600 workers producing 1,000 tons of food annually, Garut's role as a center for small-scale production of foodstuffs also has the potential to be expanded to help even-out economic development. The determination of Garut's entrepreneurs to continue with the dodol business, even as imported foods nibble away at their market share in urban areas, is another reason the Indonesian and German governments are helping this type of rural economic activity.

Dodol cakes date back several centuries and are found in various parts of the archipelago in different forms and under different names. Aside from the now-renowned Garut dodol, there is also Depok dodol, jenang from Kudus, lempo from Palembang and gelamai from other parts of Sumatra. The development of dodol- making means the growth of small-scale industry at the village level and the use of local resources and local people. The raw materials for these cakes, for example, can come from local farms.

Assistance

The cooperative program with Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture and the German government through GTZ/GFA, developed a two stage project to help small-scale manufacturers. In the concept stage, the project was aimed at finding an accurate mechanism for providing guidance and organizing a small-scale industry development concept based in the principle of interdependence and a network of agencies, banks and local NGOs.

The program stage identified target groups and began field work directly through consultations, training and solving problems faced by dodol and dried banana chip makers. Problems included difficulties in production as well as marketing. Financial management analysis was also conducted.

One activity of direct benefit at this stage was the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat analyses conducted in conjunction with the Indonesian government's Agency for Industrial Affairs. This activity was then followed up with a cost analysis program and has been seen as very helpful by the participants. Asep Syaefulloh, 29, from the Aneka Sari dodol cake company and Mudi Sudjana, 29, from the Selamat dodol cake and banana chip company, both agreed on the usefulness of the program in expanding their horizons and vision.

"What I learned from the SWOT analysis was related to the problem of improving the quality of my products. One of the problems I face is in the packaging of angleng cakes. This type of cake, which is made of sticky rice, coconut and milk, has to be wrapped in corn husks to make it harden so it can be easily eaten as a snack. But not all corn husks meet the basic requirements. If some contain a certain bacteria, then the taste of the cakes will change," explained Asep.

This corn husk problem is also being reviewed by the project, through laboratory testing.

"Based on the test results, we are going to try to overcome the problem through a sterilization process using local materials," says Frank Pohl, a German expert who has been working with the GFA program in West Java for the past two years.

Hopes

Aneka Sari also received help to solve management problems in supply, storage and preservation of raw materials, especially its specialty soursop fruit. The company is now conducting an experiment to preserve the raw materials used for this type of cake. The simple experiment, involving four plastic buckets and a chemical formula, is being carried out by Aneka Sari under GFA supervision in order to make the production process more efficient and the management of raw materials more effective.

"If BPPT (Indonesia's Agency for the Application and Assessment of Technology) had some method for resolving these kinds of technical problems, it would help us dodol makers very much," says Asep.

A similar problem is also faced by Mudi Sudjana from dried banana chip producer Selamat. He must find the most effective way to use bananas. At its processing center in Bungbulan, South Garut, Selamat now uses one ton of bananas to produce only 150 kg of dried banana chips. Efforts to reduce this gap, even after the banana skin and stem have been removed and the fruit cleaned, have not been successful.

"We tried in Pamengpeuk and in South Garut but results were even worse. From one ton of bananas, we were only able to produce 120 kg of banana chips. The taste of the chips we produced from bananas we grew ourselves in Pamengpeuk was also not as good and below the standards of the chips we process in Bungbulan. I do not know if this is related to conditions of the local geography, or not," explains Mudi who is no longer experimenting with finding the right technology for preserving his raw materials.

Mudi believes that it will be difficult for small industries to grow if they continue to store their stock in conventional ways, as they are forced by circumstance to do now.

State banks

Asep and Mudi hope that government agencies will become interested in conducting experiments and applying technological research to develop small-scale industries.

"If we continue to do this by ourselves, it will obviously be difficult. Securing funds for business development has been hard enough. Interest rates are quite high. It is also hard to get loans from state banks. The proof of this is that it has already been several months since we submitted a proposal to Jasa Rahardja. Even though their staff has already visited our factory, we still have had no response," complains Mudi.

Unlike Mudi at Selamat, Aneka Sari has received a soft loan from the state electric company. Although the loan only amounts to Rp 6 million, with an annual interest rate of 4 percent, Asep feels that this assistance has helped reduce the demands on his company's cash flow.

"We would like it if the program help which has already been of benefit to us could be continued, or even expanded further," states Asep.

Along with his support for Asep's wish, Mudi also hopes for improved cooperation, particularly among government agencies, in helping develop small industries. So far it has been primarily handled by the Department of Cooperatives and Development of Small Business.

"An example would be if the Agency for Primary Agricultural Products would propose that the Bungbulan farmers plant more bananas, so our supply is secure. Our supply is frequently disrupted now because many of the farmers growing bananas are obligated to sell the bananas to dealers who then ship the fruit to Jakarta and Bandung," says Mudi.

Asep also suffers from the same problem with regards to the supply of kidney beans. Although it is not clear if the problem comes from the number of cake makers now making bean dodol, the supply of locally-grown beans is very limited. The price of kidney beans in January 1995 jumped from Rp 700 per kg to Rp 1,400 per kg. The scarcity in the supply of this raw material, which has almost disappeared from the market, has very much disrupted the making of these sticky cakes.

Association

Both Asep and Mudi believe that some form of association or cooperative of dodol makers needs to be formed in order to guarantee the availability of raw materials. For makers of these cakes, which tend to be home-based industries employing less than 30 people, such an association could, if nothing else, help guarantee the supply of the specific type of sticky rice used as the primary ingredient in cake production.

"In general, the most appropriate kind of sticky rice costs Rp 1,300 per kg and is hard to find on the market, because it is usually bought up by the large producers, like Herlinah Cipta Pratama which makes the Picnic brand of dodol. The only other kind of sticky rice left costs Rp 1,100 kg," explains Asep.

The need to form an association is seen as necessary by Mudi not only to ward off the chances of price fixing by suppliers but also to create coordination in marketing.

"Such an association could help the smaller members by saving on the cost of transport," says Mudi.

This type of association was actually formed in Garut in 1950 with the name Conglomeration of Garut Dodol Makers. It was aimed at limiting unhealthy competition. The association was headed by Dachlan Soeriawinata and had 17 members but only lasted two years. Later on, when raw material problems affected dodol makers in 1959, an attempt was made to resurrect the association but, once again, it failed because the economic crises of the 1960s caused many cake makers to collapse. Only Picnic, Hadidjah and Sarinah survived.

With recent developments in the dodol industry however, the need to form an association seems pressing, particularly as manufacturers move from being cottage industries to slightly larger enterprises employing more people. This development is in some measure due to the bilateral assistance provided to these small-scale producers. (Kastorius Sinaga)