Kimpul root (Xanthosoma Sp.) is not popular among Indonesian people and amny people only use kimpul to feed their animals. However, two UGM students have transformed Kimpul into delicious chips. Those students are Muhammad Tholabuddin (State Administration Department of Social and Politics Science Faculty) and Arini Kusumaningtyas (Agricultural Industry Technology department).
Moreover, they managed to won the “Shell Livewire Business Start Up Award 2009†national competition with the kimpul chips. These young students defeated 300 other participants from Java-Bali region in the competition that was held by Shell. The competition chose 10 participants to be young entrepreneurs.
The creation process of the kimpul chips labeled “Blue Taro Chip†was started in an Industrial Project Plan practicum in the Agricultural Industrial technology (TIP) UGM. After that, the development of the kimpul chips into a prospective business unit became more serious.
Tholabuddin explained on Tuesday (16/6) at Fortakgama UGM that they chose Kimpul because it is a local product and it has high nutrients. Moreover, this can also empower the local society. Another benefit is the lack of pesticide since kimpul plant is strong enough to grow without pesticide. Moreover, the Blue Taro Chip is also save snack for diabetic patients because of the low sugar.
The Blue Taro Chip was started launched in the market since January 2009, under the Karisma Food Magelang’s flag. Each month they can produce more than 1 ton of Blue Taro Chip with IDR 20 million of clean profit/month. According to their plan, in July they will increase the production to 3 tons/month and also improve the marketing network. He added that there are other factors that make the competition jury chose their product. Some of them are the ability to provide jobs and the environmentally friendly production process.
“To produce 1 ton of chips we need around 3 to 4 tons of kimpul and in one day we can produce around 200 kilograms of blue taro chips,†added Arini.
Meanwhile the center for raw materials and the production process is done in Magelang, Temanggung, and Sawangan. The central office and the production central is placed at the A Yani Street Magelang. She also added that they have opened a branch marketing office in Jakarta, Bandung and Medan.
Arini added that they sell one pack of blue taro chips for IDR 5000 (100 grams). The chips is quite popular among people because there’s still lack of competitors in the mid-upper range market.
(Public Relations of UGM/Ika)