The Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia provide tea processing machine for Paninggaran Berdikari Makmur cooperative in Pekalongan. The handover has been carried out on October 23-26 2018, in Paninggaran District, Pekalongan Regency. In the same time, Technical Guidance program for the use of tea production machines was also conducted for tea farmers who are members of the cooperative.
The handover event was carried out by the Director of Small and Medium Industries of the Ministry of Industry, Bp. Dr. Ir Soedarto to the chairman of the Paninggaran Berdikari Makmur Cooperative. The representative of Ministry of Industry said that the production facility provision was to create new entrepreneurs in the Indonesian tea sector. Supporting the implementation of independent, creative and competitive farmers in the tea industry sector, the assistance of green tea production machines can be a mean to increase added value of farmers’ tea, so farmers are able to sell dry tea. For years, farmers have only been able to sell fresh tea shoots, now is the time for farmers to sell dry tea with better profit margins. Provision of machinery by the Ministry of Industry for the Paninggaran Mandiri Makmur Cooperative is a follow up of the Lestari program which was previously implemented by Business Watch Indonesia and Solidaridad. The Ministry of Industry added that BWI and Solidaridad’s efforts are activities that deserve to be followed up because they have a vision and mission to develop the Indonesian tea sector.
