JULY 2019 FORBES INDONESIA | 37“There’s a huge
opportunity
for maize
production in
Indonesia and
the government
has also been
supportive
in policy and
imports. That’s
why the maize
price has
been in a good
balance for
farmers and
the poultry
industry.started exporting its horticultural seeds to 11
countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and
China. While in the insecticide and fertilizer
sector the company is a relatively small player,
it offers 70 types of pesticides, herbicides, and
fungicides, as well as leaf fertilizers, which are
used by spraying on plants’ leaves.
In the hybrid corn business the company
competes with global companies like Dupont
and Syngenta, however being a local company
with a long track record, knowledge of local
culture and its relationship with farmers give
Bisi a competitive advantage. One of the com-
pany’s main challenges today is climate change,
which was one of the factors contributing to
the company’s flat performance last year. Due
to unanticipated changes in the weather, the
company production in the first half of 2018
was below target. And despite the company try-
ing to catch up in the second half, the overall
performance was still flat compared to the pre-
vious year. Jemmy also cites plant diseases that
evolve more quickly nowadays.
“Climate change caused different weather
patterns compared with the previous year,”
Jemmy says.This year, the company plans to boost its
growth by 15% to 20%. And to anticipate the
shifting weather, Bisi has already produced
extra quantities of seeds since the second half
of last year. To deal with pests and disease, the
company has also set aside a significant budget
for research and innovation in developing new
varieties. Jemmy says the research budget in
Bisi is around 8% of annual turnover as well as
Rp 10 billion from capex to buy new research
equipment. With these figures he claims Bisi
could be the most advanced agriculture com-
pany in the country.
Bisi also has plenty of growth plans for the
future. The company’s majority sharehold-
er is the Jiaravanon family, which owns the
Charoen Pokphand Group. The company has
implemented a partnership model with farm-
ers and Charoen. Last year, the company’s
partnership model covered 50,000 hectares of
corn plantation and this year it plans to double
this size. Jemmy says that once Charoen de-
mand is fulfilled, the company is open to set-
ting up similar partnership models with other
feedmill companies or even financing a tech-
nology company to minimize farmers’ risks
and improve benefits. Jemmy also says the
company is monitoring the potential to export
its maize seeds just as it already does with its
horticultural seeds.
As for its hybrid rice seeds, Jemmy says the
company is still developing a variety that pro-
duces an optimal yield that can be accepted by
farmers. Compared to conventional rice seeds,
the hybrid requires a different treatment when
planting and it can also be optimized by agri-
cultural mechanization, which is still a rarity
in Indonesia. Reflecting on his nearly 30 years’
experience in the company, Jemmy is optimis-
tic that in the future hybrid rice seeds will also
be accepted by farmers, although this will re-
quire further market education.
“I joined the company in 1990, back then no
one knew about hybrid maize. Farmers were
not willing to buy our seeds despite us telling
them they would give a better yield. So we edu-
cated them, we convinced the government that
it would improve productivity, farmers’ income
and eventually the economy as a whole. It was
a long process, but now looking at the results,
seeing that the farmers are happy, that is my
ADOBE STOCKS (2) personal satisfaction,” Jemmy says. F