April 14, 2012
Indonesia
Patchouli growers in Aceh face a number of challenges, one of the main ones being the unstable price paid on the local level. When patchouli is being planted, middlemen regularly announce a high price. This encourages a large number of growers to plant patchouli.
When growers do not have the capital to invest, middlemen offer loans with the condition that the growers sell all patchouli grown back to the middlemen at harvest time. When harvest time comes, the price offered by the middlemen drops and growers have little profit after repaying debts, perpetuating poverty. CCR’s project therefore tries to link cooperatives of patchouli growers directly to buyers and help stabilize the price offered to the growers.
One of the activities working to this aim was a field trip with representatives from all four cooperatives and governmental stakeholders to the heart of the business industry: Jakarta. According to Sumarni Dahlan, Marketing Coordinator of CCR, the cooperatives were well prepared for visiting to national buyers and industry stakeholders. The field visit built on marketing training provided at the onset of the project for all cooperatives. The cooperative board practiced how to establish relationships with prospective buyers and how to negotiate potential contracts. Sumarni mentioned: "During this visit, the cooperatives can practice what they have learned; promote their cooperatives to interested buyers and explain why their business is vital in supporting the conditions of rural patchouli growers in Aceh.”
Next to visiting essential oil companies, the cooperatives also visited the Essential Oil Research Centre – BALITTRO and the Indonesian Essential Oil Council, DAI. The cooperatives were asked to prepare a presentation on their cooperatives and try to find out if they could lobby for future assistance. An additional outcome of the visit was a joint commitment between all four cooperatives to work more closely together to promote patchouli oil from Aceh across the country and beyond.
The visit was an eye-opener for all involved. Ali Arman, head of the Patchouli Cooperative KING in Gayo Lues said: “This visit helps us greatly as we now discovered what buyers are looking for and how we can better market our products”. He was joined by Cut Syazalisma, Head of the Government Directorate of Cooperatives in Aceh Selatan, who said that based on what he experienced in Jakarta, his districts was more than happy to open up discussions with companies interested in working with rural farmers and government to improve the economic situation of the area.
Cover photo: Members of KINA/KINGS’s Patchouli Aceh cooperative and local government take a group picture together with the Director one the of big national buyers in Jakarta.
Written by: Isfani Yunus, CCR Communication Officer, April 2012
