BELITUNG -- Lemongrass has many benefits for the body, besides being used for food, lemongrass can also be used for various products such as rubbing oil, soap, and others.
This is what the fostered partner of PT TIMAH Tbk, Juli Arman Sutejo, who comes from East Belitung, makes various products from lemongrass such as rubbing oil, soap, perfume, fresh care and is currently preparing dish soap products.
Juli Arman Sutejo has the 'Abel' brand for every product he produces. He said he started this business in 2015.
He thought of developing this business because of the abundance of lemongrass in their area. Usually, lemongrass is only used for food ingredients. So, he thought of processing lemongrass into rubbing oil.
At first, lemongrass rubbing oil was only produced on a small scale and marketed to the closest people. It turned out that the market acceptance was quite good, this started when a colleague who massaged tourists liked his lemongrass oil.
From there, his business continued to grow, demand for lemongrass rubbing oil was increasingly in demand because it had a distinctive aroma and benefits.
"Initially there was a friend who used this lemongrass rubbing oil to massage tourists, and they liked it and ordered it to be sent," he said.
He said that he had even produced thousands of bottles of lemongrass oil to meet consumer demand. Currently, he said, in marketing lemongrass oil, he has several resellers, marketed them through the marketplace, and deposited them in gift shops.
Not wanting to be complacent, Juli Sutejo has also developed other products using lemongrass as raw materials, such as soap, perfume, and fresh care.
"I saw the market, so I developed products that suit people's needs such as soap, perfume, and fresh care. Thankfully, the demand is also quite good," he said.
At first, he said, to develop this business he had limited capital. So he decided to become a foster partner of PT TIMAH Tbk to develop his business.
"After becoming a foster partner of PT TIMAH Tbk, I used it to develop products. Improve packaging, and get many benefits," he said.
According to him, he was also allowed to promote his products by participating in exhibitions so that his products were increasingly known.
Currently, according to Abel, he is developing a dish soap product from lemongrass. So there are more and more product variants.
"We are still developing dish soap products from lemongrass. This formulation has been found, so we just need to develop it," he said.
He hopes that PT TIMAH Tbk's PUMK program can continue so that it can encourage MSMEs to develop their businesses.
"Hopefully PT TIMAH Tbk can continue to support MSME actors so they can develop their business. Because programs like this can help MSMEs," he said.
