Unhas Launches 'Sea to Table' App to Empower Coastal MSMEs
Makassar (ANTARA) - A community outreach team from Hasanuddin University (Unhas) has developed a digital ‘Sea to Table’ platform, a community-based approach connecting the marine culinary products of coastal communities on Barrang Caddi Island, Makassar, South Sulawesi, with consumers in a simpler and more efficient way.
Beyond providing a digital marketing space, the idea also builds a business ecosystem that brings together local potential, micro, small and medium enterprises (UMKM) and market opportunities within a single mutually supportive value chain.
The head of the Unhas outreach team, Prof Dr Seniwati, in a statement issued in Makassar on Thursday, explained that coastal communities actually possess their main capital in the form of abundant marine resources and the skills to process fisheries products into commercially valuable goods.
The greatest challenge emerges when those products must compete amid changing consumption patterns, as society increasingly relies on digital technology.
For Unhas, she said, technology is merely one part of the empowerment process.
She explained that before introducing the digital platform, the community is first equipped with various skills that form the foundation of business development, ranging from marketing strategy, price setting and brand strengthening.
Product packaging techniques, improving the quality of processed seafood, and the use of social media and marketplaces as promotional channels are also covered. The approach is designed so that digital transformation goes hand in hand with improving human resource capacity.
This support is expected to increase work efficiency, maintain the quality of raw materials and expand the production capacity of the women’s business groups on Barrang Caddi Island.
According to Prof Seniwati, the success of digital transformation is not determined by how sophisticated the technology used is, but rather by the community’s ability to utilise it sustainably.
‘What we want to build is community self-reliance. When women have the skills to manage a business, understand market needs, and are able to use technology as a tool for growth, the benefits of the programme will continue to be felt even after the outreach activities have ended,’ she said.