46 | FORBES INDONESIA JULY 2019
Amir Sudjono is trying to raise the profile of his hometown Purwokerto by
selling coconut sugar and false eyelashes on the global market
BYULISARI ESLITA
PRIDE OF
PURWOKERTO
L
ocal entrepreneur Amir Sudjono has
built a solid business producing and
exporting false eyelashes and coco-
nut sugar from his hometown Pur-
wokerto, a small city in Central Java.
The Cornell University graduate saw
the local produce and craftsmanship potential and
turned them into a prospective business, while at the
same time creating jobs in the area.
“After I graduated from Cornell, I studied Man-
darin in China for 2.5 years. I saw that China was
GLOBAL COCONUT SUGAR SUPPLIER
at its lowest turning point. They are a prosperous
country already. I assume, one day, their labor-inten-
sive industry will pull out of China and seek another,
cheaper, country,” says Amir, 36.
Purwokerto is already the national center of
coconut sugar production. Annually, Banyumas re-
gency, of which Purwokerto is the capital, produc-
es at least 146,000 tonnes of coconut sugar or 25%
of the country’s annual production. Coconut sugar
also has a strong domestic market in Indonesia. The
country’s instant noodle giant PT Indofood Sukses
NEW GUINEAPAPUA
1,191,438
MEXICO
1,157,481
THAILAND
815,406
TANZANIA
555,836
INDONESIA
17,722,429
PHILIPPINES
13,825,080
INDIA
11,127,898
BRAZIL
2,649,246
SRI LANKA
2,520,095
VIETNAM
1,469,960
SOURCE: TANIHOOD