Koperasi Peduli Rakyat Sejahtera - Smecda

KSP MINA SEJAHTERA
Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi
Acting Carefully in a Difficult Period
One ordeal after another has shaped
KSP Mina Sejahtera. For example,
when seaweed and trepang (sea
cucumber) cultivation was elaborated members
of KSP experienced listlessness. The
unfavorable circumstance had affected the
level decrease of members’ revenue and in
the end would affect the smoothness of loan
return to the cooperation.
Muhammad Jaya, Chairman of KSP Mina
Sejahtera, did not stand still. He then sought
business alternatives for members who faced
difficulties. In his head there was an idea to
ask a number of members who previously
were engaged in seaweed and trepang cultivation
to shift jobs temporarily and worked
as pine gum tapers and even involved up to
the processing stage. “Members who were
experiencing difficulties were invited by me
to work as tapers and process pine gum in
cooperation with Forestry Service,” said Jaya.
In such cooperation, KSP provided manpower,
meanwhile Forestry Services provided
the land. “The production will be jointly agreed
upon later,” Jaya added. According to Jaya,
such effort was made in order for fund loan
that has been distributed to be returned by
the community. “Now we are thriving to
smoothen out the return of loan,” Jaya added.
The presence of KSP Mina Sejahtera in
the vicinity of seaweed farmers is considered
as something quite large, especially for members
and future members in Tanggetada area.
One example was when seaweed and
trepang cultivation went booming a couple
of years ago, which affected the business
pattern of the community. At the time,
Tanggetada denizens together cultivated seaweed
and trepang. However, most of them
did not have enough capital to start such cultivation.
As a solution, they applied for loan
to KSP Mina Sejahtera.
When the scale of seaweed cultivation
business of Tanggetada community increased,
the need of business capital also
increased. One day, loan application demand
was so high that KSP administrators became
overwhelmed. The loan application turned out
to be larger than the fund reserve in the cooperation.
However, now the story of fund
shortage becomes the story of the past. After
receiving agribusiness sector capital strengthening
scrolling fund aid in the amount of Rp 1
billion in 2004, KSP Mina Mandiri began to
be able to fulfill the needs of loan for the members.
At this time, KSP Mina Sejahtera has
126 members and 1,250 future members.
The issue of loan return is classical. It is
faced by nearly all KSPs including KSP Mina
Sejahtera. The stagnation of loan return occurs,
among others, due to the production of
trepang and seaweed cultivation managed by
the members that decreased or in other words
that was not as good as it used to. Even
though it went through listlessness, the level
of agribusiness scrolling fund loan return distributed
by KSP Mina Sejahtera was rather
high. Within four years, KSP Mina Sejahtera
has returned agribusiness/sector scrolling
fund loan in the amount of Rp 400 million
through BPD Sultra Bank. It means KSP Mina
Sejahtera has never been in arrears, since it
is regulated that way. To pay up this debt KSP
applies cross subsidize.
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K o p e r a s i P e d u l i , R a k y a t S e j a h t e r a