Palm sugar produced by PNM-assisted MSME attracts exporter interest
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Palm sugar produced by a micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) from Garut Regency, West Java, assisted by PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM), has attracted the interest of an exporter.
The palm sugar, produced by Susanti, an MSME owner from Bukit Bungbulang in Garut, is branded Gasebu, short for Gula Semut Bungbulang. It caught the attention of an exporter from Cianjur Regency, West Java, who submitted a request of up to 30 tonnes as part of an export exploration.
PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (Persero) President Director Kindaris, in a statement issued in Jakarta on Tuesday, said the company takes a special approach to developing ultra-micro businesses, chiefly by combining financing with empowerment.
“To help ultra-micro businesses grow, they need not only capital but also a pathway opened for them so they can move up a class,” he said.
According to him, ultra-micro enterprises require greater support to improve their literacy and business quality compared with other business scales.
PNM, he added, remains committed to opening doors for ultra-micro businesses in remote areas so they can introduce their products to wider markets.
Meanwhile, Susanti explained that she has been processing palm sugar since 2015, but at that time her products were sold as they were, without any brand identity.
She realised that good product quality alone was not enough to make Gasebu widely known. Her biggest challenges were limited business capital, minimal promotional access, and rudimentary bookkeeping.
Those conditions forced her to postpone export opportunities that had opened through several curation processes, because the palm sugar she produced did not yet have production and marketing systems capable of fulfilling large-scale demand.
The turning point came when Susanti joined as a PNM Mekaar customer with an initial loan of Rp4 million. She used the capital to buy the harvests of palm farmers around Bungbulang, whom she then invited to become part of her assisted business group.
Through PNM’s empowerment programme, she received guidance ranging from designing attractive product packaging to digital marketing strategies, including encouragement to venture into online sales and live shopping.
Susanti said the partnership with PNM on the ground was key to the growth of her palm sugar business. Socialisation of the empowerment programme they initiated managed to gather dozens of local residents to be trained in producing ant sugar from their own homes, allowing business capital to be distributed more evenly across the community.
The impact is now being felt widely: she is able to absorb around 130 people, consisting of 113 palm farmers and 17 workers at her production house.
She hopes the branding support and business development she has experienced can continue going forward, and not stop at a single moment.
“Hopefully there will be other programmes that can further develop our business and have an even wider impact on the wider community through PNM,” she said.