Pertamina: Kebumen International Expo Officially Ends, Pertamina MSMEs Achieve Hundreds of Millions of Transactions

Kebumen International Expo (KIE), held from June 25 to July 2, 2022, is officially ended. KIE was held by presenting various activities such as exhibitions, seminars, and other performances that attracted the public attention. The closing night was filled with legendary musician Iwan Fals’ appearance after other top musicians, including the Gigi Band, Rhoma Irama, D’masiv, Padi, Kotak, Kerispatih, and Shalawatan Gus Azmi.

Endang Natalia Eko Purnomo or Nana, a Pertamina Fostered Partner, who used to sell dumplings and spring rolls at Beringharjo Market, despite having more than 1000 spring rolls ready to be fried, almost decided not to attend the Kebumen International Expo (KIE) because there are no fees.”Before, I was pessimistic and thought the event would not be successful,” she said.

Nana thought that because KIE was held in a small town and had just recovered after Covid-19, there would not be many visitors. However, the strategic position of the booth, VIP A east door, made the Pertamina UMKM booth crowded with visitors.

“It turned out that my guess was wrong. During the KIE event, the spring rolls sold out more than 100 portions in just 2 hours every day,” she said.

In line with Nana, Rubikem, who sells various traditional foods such as mini tiwul, crispy tiwul, ready-to-eat tiwul, instant gatot, and tiwul chips, which at the beginning of the KIE event only brought goods with limited stock, turned out the products were sold out. “Every day, the mini tiwul is sold out before 11.00, as well as other products,” he said.

PT Pertamina (Persero) continues to encourage its Fostered Partners to upgrade. One of the efforts is to involve them in various local, national, and international exhibitions.

On this occasion, Pertamina included 15 of its best MSMEs in the Kebumen International Expo (KIE) which managed to bring in more than 220 thousand visitors from various regions. The 15 Pertamina MSMEs that enliven KIE came from manysectors, including 10 in the culinary, the rest from the fashion and craft sectors. The total transactions obtained by 15 MSMEs assisted by Pertamina were more than 134 million. It is a significant number considering that the most products sold are food.

The Kebumen International Expo is the largest event ever held in Kebumen, will run from June 25 to July 2, 2022, at Kebumen square. There are 500 exhibition booths during this event. KIE was created to boost the Kebumen people’s economy and promote the city to broader audience.

Acting Vice President of Corporate Communications, Fajriyah Usman, explained the various ways PT Pertamina (Persero) taken to support its MSME partners to rise from the Covid-19 pandemic impact with a coaching roadmap scheme. Starting from traditional conditions, becoming Go Modern, Go Digital, Go Online, to Go Global.

“All this is given to fostered partners indiscriminately, to encourage them to be outstanding and independent,” she said.

“Pertamina’s fostered partner SMEs can register to participatein the exhibition, which Pertamina will participate in via the link https://bit.ly/kurasipameran2022,” said Fajriyah.

The criteria for participating in the Exhibition include current loan installments, joining the UMK Academy, having participated in exhibitions at the local level, produce their own products with adequate capacity, having promo materials (catalogs and videos), not using subsidized LPG, downloading the MyPertamina application, and following Instagram gen_umkm. “The last condition is that MSMEs must be willing to make promotional packages during the exhibition,” she conveyed.