Pertamina: Pertamina Supports Foster Partners For Archipelago Culinary Business Expansion

PT Pertamina (Persero), through PT Pertamina Patra Niaga Regional West Java, continues to support its fostered Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) partners, including the culinary sector. It includes Suhada Food owned by Endan Wildan, a man born in Cianjur 1976.

Suhada Food or on social media Instagram as @babyfish_cianjur76 was founded in 2010. Endan saw the accumulation of baby fish among farmers in Cianjur. Starting as a way of helping the market, Endan saw that this could be an opportunity to start a business with only two employees.

“I started this business initially to help market fish farmers in Cianjur. Until finally, I came up with the idea that this baby fish can be delicious ready-to-eat food for culinary lovers of the archipelago, it can even be taken abroad because it is processed so that it does not go stale easily,” explained Endan.

Now Endan has 12 employees, which he empowers from the environment around which he lives. The products sold by Suhada Food are now baby fish, goldfish, tilapia, and petek fish. The prices of the products sold vary, starting from Rp. 25,000 to Rp. 35,000

Endan through Suhada Food continues to expand to have resellers in various islands in Indonesia such as Sulawesi, Java, and Kalimantan. For lovers of baby fish, it is no longer difficult to enjoy the culinary flavors of the archipelago from ready-to-eat food. Suhada Food’s turnover continues to increase to reach 300 million per month. However, at the beginning of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit Indonesia, which made its turnover drop by 40%.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not an easy thing to go through for every entrepreneur. Not wanting his business to go out of business during the pandemic, Endan continues to make various innovations such as selling online so that his business can continue to survive during the pandemic.

“To be able to survive during the pandemic, all entrepreneurs must remain productive and continue to innovate. Pertamina educates its fostered partners to shift from conventional sales to online sales. This is to anticipate the increase in unemployment and the accumulation of products without a market,” said Area Manager Communication, Relations & CSR of Pertamina Patra Niaga West Java Region, Eko Kristiawan.

Endan’s commitment to creating job opportunities to assist the government’s program in reducing unemployment in Indonesia has now found a bright spot. Joining Pertamina’s Foster Partner in 2014, his business has also received funding assistance and business guidance. The funding assistance was used to renovate the baby fish processing site, purchase capital for raw materials, work tools, and other supporting operations.

“Being Pertamina’s Foster Partner has greatly affected my business. The capital loan from Pertamina has become an addition to my business. Not only did I get a capital loan, but I also received management training and was able to take part in the bazaars organized by Pertamina, thus making my business more well-known to the public,” said Endan.

Endan is very grateful for the opportunity to participate in empowering the surrounding community in his business so that he can help reduce unemployment. With the hope that Pertamina will continue to receive guidance and assistance so that its products can be better and get the opportunity to market more widely to foreign countries.

“Through the partnership program, Pertamina is present as energy for MSEs, and together we move the wheels of the community’s economy,” Eko concluded.

This program also aims to continue implementing point 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely decent work and economic growth. In addition to the SDGs, Pertamina also seeks to implement Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) in the social sector. In this way, Pertamina believes that it can generate economic benefits in the community following environmental and social responsibilities.