Supporting SDGs and ESG, Pertamina Helps MSEs to Develop Spice Commodity Processing Business

Jakarta, June 27, 2021 – Indonesia's equatorial location means that natural resources, particularly spices, are abundant. This potential is widely used by micro and small enterprises (MSEs) assisted by Pertamina in the spice processing sector. With intensive assistance, these business actors are fostered to become an upgraded MSEs.

Acting Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations of Pertamina, Fajriyah Usman, explained that Pertamina's MSEs were not only made up of craft and ready-made food entrepreneurs. But also raw goods in the form of spice commodities. "In this sector, the target is farmers, both individuals, and groups," she said.

The number of partners engaged in the spice commodity sector varies, both in cultivation, processing, and finished products. For example, there are 48 MB (Mitra Binaan) of clove commodities, 14 MB of chocolate, 10 MB of ginger, 10 MB of nutmeg, and 2 MB of nutmeg commodities.

The assistance provided to spice farmers starts from the most basic level. It includes land preparation, seed selection, planting, maintenance to harvesting. Pertamina provides guidance to process these spices into finished goods.

"That way, the spices will have a higher selling value than being marketed without processing. Therefore, it will make the MSEs upgrade. Because it has increased turnover, production capacity, and of course increased the number of workers needed," said Fajriyah.

One of them is like the business undertaken by Irmawati A. Husen. Pertamina's fostered partner, the owner of the Ifamoy business, sells various processed spice products from around her house in Tabona Village, Ternate, North Maluku. It includes walnuts, walnut coffee, walnut snacks, processed nutmeg such as shredded nutmeg, nutmeg nastar, and nutmeg tea.

Ifamoy's rapid business progress was increasingly evident when she decided to join Pertamina as a foster partner in 2020. Thanks to the capital assistance she received, she doubled her walnut coffee production from 100 caps per day to 1000 caps per day with a turnover of up to IDR 60 million per month.

According to Fajriyah, through the MSE Funding Program, Pertamina wants to provide energy that can move the economy--energy that fuels and energy that produce sustainable growth.

Pertamina also supports SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) point 8 achievements through implementing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)-based programs in all of its operational areas. It is part of the environmental and social responsibility to realize economic benefits in the community.**