The Power of Crowdfunding

16-05-2017 Agriterra organised a crowdfunding platform where people in The Netherlands could donate money to certain projects of Agriterra. Finally, KSU Qtha was granted this crowfunding to invest in warehouse and rice dryer unit to expand their business development in organic rice.

Koperasi Serba Usaha Qaryah Thayyibah

KSU Qaryah Thayyibah (KSU QTha) is a multi-purpose cooperative located in Salatiga, Central Java Province, Indonesia. KSU QTha was founded by Farmer organization Serikat Paguyuban Petani Qaryah Thayyibah (SPPQT) which aims to develop economic condition of the farmers especially the SPPQT members. Currently, KSU QTha focuses on 2 main products, i.e. organic rice for local market and organic spices which later to be processed as seasoning for export market mainly to Europe.

Organic Rice as Product Priority

As a new and to be developed cooperative, board members and management are eager and working hard to expand the business and select rice as product priority. Currently market demand of organic rice is increased significantly which is a great opportunity for KSU Qtha to improve their business profile. Their multi variant of organic rice consist of black rice, brown rice, less sugar rice and mini grain rice are unique and not easily produced by competitor.  To sell their rice, KSU Qtha cooperates with one big trader with  strong brand. Their rice are present in major supermarket chains in Java mostly in Central of Java.

Challenges

However, although they have a valid business case, KSU Qtha is still young organisation and faces many challenges. Due to the limited of capital, warehouse and rice drying facilities, currently KSU QTha can only absorb very limited products produced by the members. They haven’t able yet to fulfill the market opportunity.

New Equipment & Warehouse

Agriterra has been working to strengthen KSU Qtha in 3 main aspect, i.e. governance, finance management and business development.

Building of a warehouse, buying equipment as drying unit was started October last year and finalised in December 2016. With the new warehouse, KSU Qtha is able to absorb more products from members and has ambition to supply double volume to customers.

With support of Agriterra Qtha has been connected to new processor and international trader, also due to the fact that they have a warehouse and rice dryer. 

Future

Another business deal is that KSU Qtha will produce 14 organic spices which gets processed by PT. Bamboe to produce annualy 300,000 sachets of 3 different Indonesia cuisines seasoning for Fairtrade and marketed to Europe. Warehouse creates trust in KSU Qtha by other parties as they are capable to show that they have a trading infrastructure in place. Currently Fairtrade invest to improve the standard of warehouse by providing two food safety trainings: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

Crowdfunding contributes significantly to the development of rural entreprise to strengthen their company profile and better market access.