Palm sugar makers stuck in bitter bind of debt

By Agus Maryono

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): For all his 60 years, Munarjo can still agilely climb a 12-meter-high palm tree.

Two empty sap-collecting bamboo tubes, each about 50 cm long, hang from his waist. Bare-chested, he jumps onto the tree stem and midrib to affix the tubes to the tip of fruit ovules. Then the old man clambers down, taking with him tubes containing liquid.

The sap, from which palm or brown sugar is made, drips from the tip of the budding fruits.

The resident of Pagerraji village, Cilongok subdistrict, Banyumas district, like thousands of others, depends on the precious fluid for his living.

Age has not slowed him as he scales 40 trees every day, split between morning and afternoon work sessions.

It is arduous work, and the rewards are small.

"We used to earn just enough to keep body and soul together. Lately, however, our earnings have not been enough to buy rice, especially because the price of rice is not on par with palm sugar," Munarjo told The Jakarta Post.

"When the price of rice was still Rp 800 per kilogram, we could get enough to eat. Now it is Rp 3,200 per kilogram."

Demand for palm sugar increases during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan. A favorite food for breaking the fast is kolak, the sweet compote of starchy fruits or vegetables in coconut milk and palm sugar.

This year, its market price jumped from Rp 2,600/kilogram to Rp 3,300/kilogram.

"Even though the price of palm sugar in the market has increased, we have to sell it to the pengepul (broker) for Rp 1,800 per kilogram," Munarjo complained.

Brokers purchase the commodity long before it is collected.

"One of the brokers told us the price was decided in Jakarta," said Nuridin, 41, another palm sugar maker from the village.

He cannot sell directly on the market because he is committed by a loan to supply his broker. "He often offers me loans."

Loans act as the moral bind as well in continuing the relationship with the brokers. He said almost all palm sugar makers have taken loans, with amounts ranging from Rp 100,000 to Rp 500,000, and sometimes even more.

"These debts will never be paid off because brokers never asked us to pay them back. They even reject the payment of our debts."

Nuridin admitted he owes Rp 300,000 to his broker.

Loans come with a catch. Brokers expect the makers to sell their sugar to them at prices lower than going market prices. The system, known as ijon, has kept people like Munarjo and Nuridin in a cycle of debt and poverty for years.

Arif Wahidin, an activist of institute working with Banyumas palm sugar makers since 1994, told the Post the ijon system shackled the makers in poverty because they needed loans from traders to meet daily needs. "This system is very disadvantageous to palm sugar makers."

Nuridin acknowledged the trap.

"Nowadays, prices of daily necessities have gone up and palm sugar makers can only take more loans from traders to cover their living expenses."

It takes an average of seven hours to make palm sugar, in exhausting process. It is women's work.

Although men collect the sap and lend a hand in the molding process, their wives take care of the processing of the palm sugar.

Nuridin's wife processes the sap into sugar after he collects the liquid twice a day, at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.

In the morning, he can fill up to half of the bamboo tube, but in the afternoon he can hope for a quarter full at the most. He usually puts two tubes on each tree.

Nuridin, who has 25 coconut trees, collects an average of 35 liters of sap a day, enough to make five kg of palm sugar.

Nuridin's wife cooks the sap for four to five hours until it boils.

"It is then stirred for about an hour to let it thicken," she said.

The thickened sap is put into a mold, which may be made from bamboo or concave metal shape, to cool and harden into sugar.

According to data compiled by the industry ministry office in Banyumas district, there are 28,773 palm sugar-making business units in Banyumas, employing about 58,529 workers. An official of the agency, Soepriyadi, said 24 of 27 subdistricts in Banyumas district produce palm sugar.

He said 75 percent went to Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Cirebon, Semarang and other cities, for export to Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle East and Europe. The remaining 25 percent fulfills the demand in Banyumas.

Joint research conducted by the industry ministry and the Institute for Research and Development of Resources and the Environment of Purwokerto in 1995 showed complicated and protracted marketing of the product from the palm sugar maker to the consumers.

The products moves through an extended chain from brokers/small-scale traders to medium-scale traders, large-scale traders, distributors and retailers, respectively.

"Maybe we will set up a palm sugar makers' cooperative to make sure that the marketing process will be shortened," Soepriyadi said.

Arif Wahidin, an activist of institute, meanwhile told the Post that the worst thing for palm sugar makers is the fact that they are shackled with the ijon system because they need loans from the brokers to fulfill their daily needs. "This system is very disadvantageous to palm sugar makers." said Wahidin, who has been assisting palm sugar makers in Banyumas since 1994.