Plant street vendors escape raids

By Hera Diani

JAKARTA (JP): There is a type of street vendor that does not have to worry too much about getting raided by City Public Order officers. These vendors are sidewalk plant businesses.

Why? Perhaps because they help green the city.

If you happen to be looking for plants, whether they be decorative plants, fruit trees, or even rare plant species, sidewalk plant sellers in the city can provide them all.

Along Jl. Gerbang Pemuda, across the road from Taman Ria Senayan, right through until Jl. Asia Afrika, Central Jakarta; on Jl. Prapanca, South Jakarta; near Mega Mall in Pluit, North Jakarta, are among the many of these green places.

Senayan may not be the most established place for plant sellers but it may be the most prominent and most renowned for selling quality plants.

There are some 125 vendors trading in the area with various species of plants. They do not just sell plants either, but also flowerpots and fertilizers.

A vendor named Suud, who is in his 60s, claimed to be the first person to sell plants in the area.

"I've been here since 1979. I've been specializing in decorative plants and flowers, but I also sell potted plants," he told The Jakarta Post recently, in his plot covering three meters by seven meters.

There are many species of plants offered by Suud, from plants like Lily and Fern which are sold as cheaply as Rp 2,500 (U.S. 20 cents), to more expensive ones like Palm and Balinese Pandanus which are worth hundreds of thousands of rupiah, sometimes even amounting to Rp 2.5 million (US$227.3).

"Sometimes I buy these plants from farmers in Cilandak, South Jakarta. Others are grown by myself. As for the pots, I bought them from distributors," said Suud, a native Jakartan.

Pot prices range from Rp 10,000 to Rp 35,000.

Next to Suud's place is a plot owned by Warda, who specializes in fruit plants. He has been there since 1987.

"From common fruits like mango and durian (Durio zibethinus), to rare fruit like gandaria (Bouea macrophylla) and gohok (Eugenia polycephala), they're all here," Warda told the Post.

He said that many prominent figures have bought fruit trees from his plot.

"Vice President Megawati and her husband legislator Taufik Kiemas are among my customers. They used to hang out here once a week, for hours," Warda said proudly.

According to Warda, Megawati is a collector of rare fruit trees, following her elder sister-in-law, Henny, Guntur Soekarnoputra's wife.

"I once sold her a white jamblang (Syzygium cumini), a rare species I bought from Surabaya. The price was Rp 750,000. That type is rare because the fruit is usually blue," he said.

While having prominent customers, Warda said that business is slow nowadays, as the monetary crisis continues to hit the country.

"Sometimes there are no buyers for three consecutive days. But we still earn an income. Well, it's quite enough to feed my family," he said.

As a side business, Warda started to take orders to build parks a year ago with five employees. He charges Rp 200,000 per meter for building parks.

Both Warda and Suud said that it is difficult to know what people want to buy.

"I have many mango seeds or trees stored away, but many people are actually looking nowadays for guavas or durian. Suud stores many pots, but people are most keen on bonsai," Warda said.

Meanwhile, another vendor named Wartiah said that many people look for frangipani (Plumeria acuminata), which is why she specializes in them.

According to a buyer named Maria, she likes frangipani because the flowers have various colors, sometimes as many as 12 different colors.

"I usually buy them here in Senayan as they are good quality, even though it's more expensive. You can get cheaper ones in Rawa Belong, West Jakarta," she said.

The price of frangipani in Senayan can be up to hundreds of thousands of rupiah, even as much as Rp 3 million.

While the vendors have never been raided by city officers -- they are obliged to pay retribution amounting to around Rp 15,000 a month, sometimes the City Park Agency asks them for free plants.

"I once got angry with an officer and reported him to the head of the agency because I know for a fact that they have a special budget for plants," said Warda.

Unlike traders in Senayan, vendors in Prapanca are being asked to vacate their sidewalk trading areas because the South Jakarta Mayor is building a new office there.

"They said we have to look for another place, and they will pay for it. But we haven't found it yet," said a vendor named Abdullah, who has been selling plants in his family business in the area for eight years.

Similar to the vendors in Senayan, he said business is rather slow now, even though 75 percent of his customers are foreigners.

Abdullah has a dream to build a small company that will undertake larger projects than just simply renting plants to offices.

"I want to cooperate with house developers to build parks in housing complexes. Therefore, I need to have enough money in my bank account. Right now, it's still impossible, but I'm positive it can be realized in the future," he said.

"Maybe if I wasn't such a drunkard, I could collect more money now," he added, while looking away into the far distance. (hdn)