Pertamina Applies Go Online Coaching, Fostered Batik Products Successfully Enters the International Market
Jakarta, October 23, 2020 – PT Pertamina (Persero), through its Partnership Program, continues to target various MSMEs to become its fostered partners. It includes millennial-owned MSMEs. One of the advantages of this group of MSMEs is the ability to manage their business based on Go Online. Therefore they ended in efforts to Go Global and can penetrate the international market.
Vice President of Corporate Communication of Pertamina, Fajriyah Usman, said that there were 131 direct and online coachings to realize MSMEs Go Online until September 2020. Admittedly, for the application of digital and online-based MSMEs, millennials can understand faster. "Millennials are more active, responsive, and digitally literate. This is important to be able to develop their business more efficiently," said Fajriyah.
One of the millennial MSMEs assisted by Pertamina is Edy Handoko. The owner of the Batik Bintang Arut (Binar) business continues the business of his wife's parents. Her in-laws first cultivated the business in the 1980s. Then, in 2008, he and Muchayatun, his wife, continued the family business.
Edy's efforts in highlighting Indramayu's batik are quite maximal. He made several product innovations to make his batik more attractive. "We modified the production process to make it more efficient. Then, more modern marketing. Moreover, there is the addition of product variations from semi-finished materials to apparel forms for end-users," said the man born in 1981.
The enterprise, based on Jalan Kopral Yahya No. 120 Paoman Village, Indramayu District, Indramayu Regency, apart from being profit-oriented, also implements a socioprenenur-based business. He employs about 15 female batik artisans, the majority of whom are the wives of fishers. "This is to increase the income of fishers families around the house," he said.
Within a month, the Batik Bintang Arut business house can produce 400 batik cloths in a month with varying selling prices. The price starts from IDR Ninety thousand to IDR 1 million more for batik with high complexity. With this selling price, Edy can pocket a turnover of around IDR 25 to 30 million per month. "We do marketing through social media quite intensively, which can be seen through our IG @bintangarutindramayu or several marketplaces with the same name," he added.
Edy also admitted that the business he and his wife are doing is growing from year to year. All of that, he admitted, could not be separated from the benefits he received from being Pertamina's fostered partner. Pertamina invited Edy to participate in exhibitions in the Netherlands in 2012 and Iraq in 2016 for a month. Having the experience of participating in exhibitions abroad is a valuable opportunity that may not necessarily be felt by all Pertamina's fostered partners.
Currently, his business receives regular customers from Europe, Japan, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. One of his partners from Japan had suddenly come to his house to see first hand the batik production business he manages. They know Batik Bintang Arut from various exhibitions held by Pertamina. The track record of a business that is a fostered partner makes partners from abroad trust the business more. "Hopefully, this Indramayu batik will be known more by people, both domestically and abroad," concluded Edy.**