CENTRAL BANGKA – Bangka Belitung Islands Province is an archipelago that has abundant marine products. Realizing this potential, PT Timah Tbk continues to support business actors in the fishing industry sector.
Through the Micro Small Business Funding (PUMK) program, PT Timah Tbk encourages MSMEs in operational areas to continue to develop and be independent.
The benefits of PT Timah Tbk's PUMK program have been felt by many MSME players, one of PT Timah Tbk's fostered partners who has a business in the fisheries industry is Dewi.
A woman who lives in Pantai Hamlet, Batu Be Lubang Village, Pangkalan Baru District, Bangka Regency is successfully running a salted fish boiling business. Living on the coast, Dewi took advantage of this opportunity to develop her business because she had sufficient raw materials.
According to Dewi, this salted fish boiling business is a family legacy business that has been running for over 30 years. However, her business has not developed significantly due to limited capital.
"I've been a PT Timah partner for 3 years, but this business itself has been around for a long time, a business inherited from our parents, and our parents inherited it from our grandmother. So it's been around for about 30 years," she said.
Dewi said that after becoming a partner with PT Timah Tbk, she was able to increase the amount of her salted fish production. This also has an impact on increasing sales turnover.
"Initially our raw materials were limited because we only had limited capital of at least 10 baskets per day. But after getting a capital loan from PT Timah Tbk we were able to get 30 baskets of raw materials," said Dewi some time ago.
Currently, Dewi said, they can produce as much as 800kg to 1 ton of wet fish per day to be used as salted fish. t.
"This of course also has a positive impact on our turnover, in one day we can process 800 kg to 1 ton of wet fish to become salted fish," said Dewi.
Even though she produces on a large scale, he never has difficulty marketing his products. Because the public's need for salted fish is quite high, however, they also have challenges with the weather, if they enter the rainy season they cannot produce because drying salted fish still relies on sunlight.
"You could say there are no obstacles, except for rain. Because if there is no sun we cannot dry salted fish. If you don't dry the fish all day it will spoil. "If it is damaged, it is usually sold to breeders to be used as animal feed," she said.
She produces various types of salted fish such as anchovy, Bangka ciw fish, mine, and laysi fish. She has not yet expanded to other types of fish because she still experiences problems in processing them.
"Meanwhile, the most popular type of fish is salted anchovy," said Dewi.
Dewi said that she had made a lot of progress in her business after becoming a partner with PT Timah Tbk. With this capital loan, her production increased so that she could also add workers who were residents.
"Thank you PT Timah for providing capital for us, because with this capital assistance, we can increase the amount of salted fish production, apart from that we can also employ local people in the production process," she said. (*)
