BANDA ACEH – Micro-enterprises in Aceh seem to hold promise for improving people’s welfare as long as entrepreneurs can innovate and adjust their product standards to the needs of a highly segmented market.

Nurasma, one of the owners of a Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) that produces “Flavored Banana Chips” on a domestic scale, has proven that a traditional product can penetrate the international market.

According to her, banana chips typically sold domestically for Rp 1,000 per small package can be sold for hundreds of thousands or even millions of rupiah abroad. This was proven by Nurasma when she successfully exported banana chips to Taiwan some time ago.

“Several Taiwanese tasted the banana chips I made when they visited Aceh a few years ago. Later, they called me and requested a few kilograms of banana chips to be shipped to Taiwan. It was the best experience of my life because I never imagined the banana chips I usually sell traditionally could be sold abroad,” said Nurasma, while showcasing her products at the Islamic Finance Socialization event organized by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in collaboration with PT Permodalan Nasional Madani or known as PNM at Amel Convention Hall, Monday (22/7/2024).

Socialization of Sharia Financial Literacy, held by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) together with the National Madani Finance Company/Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) at the Amel Convention Hall-Banda Aceh, July, 22/7/2024).

According to Nurasma, her banana chip products are popular among buyers from abroad because she innovated them by adding different flavors.

“Besides still selling banana chips with the original flavor, our trusted products are Chocolate Banana Chips, Strawberry Banana Chips, and Green Tea Banana Chips. That’s why we named our product ‘Flavored Banana Chips’,” said Nurasma, the banana chip maker from Blangbintang, Aceh, to Civilians.id.

She added that product innovation is the key to opening up a broader market segment, in addition to packaging techniques that must meet standards to enable the products to be shipped abroad.

However, she acknowledges that the greatest challenge often faced by small industries like hers in conducting exports is the numerous administrative requirements related to licensing documents from various relevant authorities, and some of these document processing cannot be handled through a one-door service method.”

This is what often hinders micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) when exporting their products abroad. Therefore, micro-enterprises in Aceh hope that the government and banking sector will adopt a more proactive approach in assisting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to enter the export market and promote their products.[Risky/Civilians.id]

https://civilians.id/keripik-pisang-dari-aceh-diekspor-hingga-ke-taiwan