Forbes Indonesia - July 2019

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