Poetro Lebdo Sambegoro
The rattan industry is one of the NTFP commodities (non-timber forest products) that has the greatest potential in Indonesia, especially West Sumatra. However, the rattan supply chain has now become one of the biggest challenges for the rattan industry itself. Thus, the long and unpredictable schedule of rattan collectors has made the price of rattan less profitable for farmers. This is generally due to the limited resources of rattan producing villages in producing semi-finished rattan (going through the preservation process). In this case, rattan farmers have difficulty selling rattan directly to the rattan product industry. This also happened in Sumpur Kudus village, Sijunjung Regency, West Sumatra Province. In the past, Sumpur Kudus Village was one of the largest producers of raw rattan in West Sumatra, but now almost no rattan is produced from this village. The reason is that the price of rattan has not improved since the last decade. A supply chain that is too long makes the price of rattan at the village level even lower, only around Rp. 9000,- per stick measuring 310 cm long with a diameter of up to 5 cm, this is quite inversely proportional to the price of rattan in industries such as Cirebon which can reach prices of up to 50,000 per stick (semi-finished). In 2024, through an official request via the Desanesha application, the village of Sumpur Kudus submitted a request for assistance for the development of a rattan nursery in the Sumpur Kudus area. Improving the Quality of Sustainable Rattan with New Modifications in Oven and Steam Techniques is really needed by the Sumpur community to increase the efficiency of the rattan processing process and supply chain. It is hoped that the availability of semi-finished rattan will help Sumpur Kudus improve the quality of the rattan produced so that the community gets a more reasonable price and becomes a pioneer village producing sustainable rattan which is able to supply rattan directly to the industrial sector producing rattan products in the future.
Making a rattan steamer, Making a rattan oven
We really hope that the Sumpur Kudus community will become more empowered and have independence in managing rattan and will no longer depend on middlemen.