TANJUNGPANDAN – Ramayana continues to exist in developing its business and marketing its products. Having brand 'Umak crackers' women who live in Seruk Water produce coriander crackers, shrimp chips, and shellfish chips.
Pioneering business since 2017 ago, coriander crackers produced by Ramayana are its flagship product. In addition to having a unique and distinctive taste of coriander crackers are also rich in health benefits.
"This cracker is different, eating it can be with anything such as rice, meatballs, or sambal, it can also be for snacks, let alone there are characteristics of coriander," said the Owner of Umak Crackers, Ramayana.
He said, coriander crackers are quite well known to the public and the interest is quite a lot. This is evident at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic of Coriander crackers did not even experience a decrease in demand. It's different from other products.
"During the pandemic, coriander crackers did not experience a decrease in turnover, if for chips there was indeed a decrease. But with the current condition has begun to recover because community activities began smoothly," he said.
According to Ramayana, he can produce twice a week of crackers and chips, in one production he can make hundreds of packs of chips and crackers.
"That week we are twice the production, it can be up to 140 packs in one product and it's a week out usually," he explained.
Along with the increasing demand, he has limited capital to continue to develop his business, finally, in 2019 he decided to take advantage of PT Timah Tbk's Micro Small Business Funding (PUMK) program.
Unexpectedly, after getting capital from PT Timah Tbk and being able to increase production, the demand for coriander crackers is increasing, because PT Timah Tbk also helps promote its products.
"Previously capital and marketing constraints were not widespread, but after becoming tin partners we can additional capital so that production is longer and more products let alone more widely known marketing," he said.
Admittedly, there are still some obstacles in producing Umak crackers and chips, because he still relies on the weather to dry crackers.
In addition, for chip products, Ramayana also has difficulty in terms of raw materials because it depends on the season. However, he was grateful after becoming a partner of PT Timah Tbk he could stock more raw materials such as shellfish and shrimp.
"We still depend on the weather, because the drying still uses the heat of the sun. Plus raw materials such as shellfish still depend on seasonality, therefore when there are shellfish ingredients must buy in large quantities so that it is stored," he said.
Currently, the product has been marketed online, in souvenir shops, minimarkets, and meatball stalls. "Sales have gone online and there are also sold directly. Hopefully, this product will be more in demand," he said. (**)
