The Bali Regional Public Company (Perumda) visited the Great Giant Foods (GGF) plantation in Terbanggi Besar, Central Lampung, Lampung Province after establishing a collaboration in planting Candesih Bananas with PT Nusantara Segar Abadi (PT NSA) since 2019.
“All this time, we know about Great Giant Foods at a glance from videos and photos during discussions with NSA Bali friends. This visit certainly answers our curiosity about how GGF Lampung manages modern plantations, factories and production,” said the Main Director of the Kerta Bali Regional Public Company, Saguna Nyoman Kami Artana while at the GGF Lampung Training Building, Tuesday (21/2).
Accompanied by NSA Bali’s Head of Operations, Rahmat Hidayatullah Sofyan, Banana Senior Manager, Aris Wahyudi, GGF Corporate Communication, Indra Ardiyanto, Packing House and Banana Harvest Manager PG1, Edwin Bahari directly saw the process of harvesting pineapple fruit, packing process of Cavendish Bananas, and the process packing Crystal Guava (Guava).
We, Artana, said that his visit with the team greatly added insight into modern plantation management. Because there is little land in Bali, traditional gardens are not as modern or professional as in GGF.
With the permission of the Governor, this program will continue. The community is increasingly seeing evidence of the success of this collaboration, including the Creating Share Value (CSV) program partnership with farmers covering an area of 10 hectares in Bangli and Gianyar Regencies, he continued.
According to Us Artana, there is an opportunity for this cooperation pattern to be integrated with the agro-tourism model. So far, tourists come to Bali to enjoy the beaches, mountains and other tourist objects. He thinks this can also be a new tour in Bali, where people can come to see the neatly arranged banana gardens while enjoying their bananas.
“Besides Agrotourism, Edutourism can be done because campus practitioners or school students can know that there is science and technology being implemented. I think in the future in Bali there will be agrotourism and education about plantations,” he joked.
Bali has a Governor Regulation (Pergub) regarding the utilization and potential use of local products such as fish, fruit and vegetables. The Governor always appeals to the hotels there to use native Balinese local fruit.
“I think this is good for GGF to develop other commodities such as pineapple, avocado and durian, because hotels are ready as offtakers. There are many superior fruits in Bali such as mangosteen, salak, which sometimes produce a lot after a big harvest, the price of which falls after harvest has not been maximized,” he said.
Rahmat added, with the existing garden, he was able to produce 4,000 boxes per week. Approximately one third of the demand in Bali can be met and the shortfall is still supplied from GGF Lampung.
