In a meeting hall in Palembang, rows of small exhibition tables filled the room. Woven palm-frond crafts lined up beside jars of shredded fish and chicken floss, an assortment of crispy chips, and mushrooms picked fresh that very morning. Around the tables sat cooperative leaders, members of Women’s Economic Business Groups (KUEP), retail business owners, representatives from the local handicraft agency Dekranasda, and guests from major companies. This was no ordinary showcase. It was the day the economic future of rural women across 13 villages at Musi Banyuasin District, built patiently through the women-led economy business groups, would face its toughest test: the market. Were their products good enough to earn a place on city store shelves, or even in a national factory’s supply chain?

22 prospective business partners and shop owners came from Palembang with same agenda, to see, taste, and judge for themselves whether homemade products from women running 13 KUEP groups in Musi Banyuasin deserved a spot on their shelves. By the end of the day, the answer was written in ink, 15 supply partnership agreements signed.

From Freshly Harvested Mushrooms to Handwoven Crafts, a Wide Range of Products Was on Offer

The meeting opened with an overview of how products made by the 13 women’s groups reach the market, sold through three cooperative bodies whose members come from four KUEP across three different subdistricts. Three product categories took center stage, which were snacks, handicrafts, and freshly harvested goods.

Lisa, head of the Sekawan Mandiri Cooperative from Sungai Lilin subdistrict, opened the introduction of the snack category. She explained that the strength of products like shredded fish and chicken floss, along with an array of chips, lies in ingredients sourced entirely from the four villages’ own leading commodities. Additionally, she explained that the products are certified with home-industry food permits.

“All the raw materials for these snacks come from the four villages in Sungai Lilin subdistrict, so freshness is guaranteed. We used to sell only around our villages, but with support from CARE Indonesia and PT Hindoli, we’ve been able to expand our range of products. We hope the business owners here today are interested in partnering with us,” Lisa said.

Next came the handicraft category, introduced by Siti, a representative of the Srikandi Tangguh Berjaya Cooperative from Keluang subdistrict. She showcased palm-frond weaving as the flagship product of four villages, handwoven by members into various shapes and finished with natural coloring.

“The crafts are made by hand-weaving. The raw material comes from unused old palm fronds, which are shaved into strips and then woven. The women in our group create many different shapes, coloring and coating them with natural materials. We hope you’ll be willing to work with our cooperative and help sell these crafts,” Siti said.

Fuji then introduced the fresh-harvest category, the straw mushrooms. According to Fuji, mushrooms that once grew wild around the palm oil plantations are now cultivated deliberately, with noticeably better quality, across nine growing sheds and two demonstration sheds spread across several villages.

“From two sheds, the mushroom harvest has already been selling well around the village. Demand has been strong because the quality of the harvest is good. By the end of this month, we’re targeting all nine sheds to be ready for harvest. We hope businesses here will be willing to partner with us and help market what comes out of those nine sheds,” Fuji explained.

Huge Interest No One Expected

For the visiting business owners, these products from the women’s groups weren’t unfamiliar at all. Quite the opposite, many said they had long been searching for a reliable local supplier.

One of them was Amanda Brownies, a well-known shop chain in Palembang, represented that day by Tomi Kurniawan, Amanda Group’s Regional Coordinator for Sumatra. According to Tomi, his company’s interest in the KUEP snack products wasn’t polite small talk but it reflected a genuine company direction to grow alongside small and medium enterprises. He even offered to pick up the products from KUEP, a gesture that felt like fresh air, dissolving the usual assumption that the distance from village to city is simply too far.

“We warmly welcome having partners, especially from South Sumatra. You don’t need to worry about transportation, because we can pick up the products as our trucks already travel in and out of Jambi. As long as it’s along our route, we’ll collect the goods, bring them to our factory, and then distribute them. As for pricing, we’ll work that out together. We really want to grow alongside small businesses, because we started as one too. We’ll sell your products in our stores. Let’s just sit down together and figure out the details,” Tomi said.

A similarly warm welcome came from Ekenedi Wiranata, manager of Kriya Sriwijaya and part of South Sumatra’s Dekranasda, which oversees a gallery of handicrafts, songket fabrics, and basketry from across the province. He voiced his support for the KUEP woven products, seeing value others might have overlooked. When someone raised a question about pricing which said higher than the local market, Ekenedi offered a different perspective. He explained that handmade crafts can’t be priced by a single flat rule, because value depends on complexity and the market segment being targeted.

“At Kriya Sriwijaya, we have a middle-class market segment and also a higher-end one. The product just needs to be matched to the right segment. Maybe the weaving could even be combined with songket for a new kind of combination piece. Once the women’s products pass curation, we can supply them, and if there are other promotional activities like exhibitions, they’ll be included too. What matters most is that the craftsmanship stays neat and consistent, even when made by different groups. Each product’s function and natural materials are well understood. Material safety matters too. For example, a fruit basket needs to be made from something that isn’t hazardous,” he said.

Transforming Doubt to Trust

Of course, the road to an agreement wasn’t free of tough questions from prospective partners. It was precisely showed the seriousness of the effort. A representative from Mie Ayam Abang Kaif restaurant asked directly about freshness guarantees for the straw mushrooms during shipping. The owner of Dapur Ncha wanted to know whether special pricing was available for bulk purchases. Meanwhile Dewi Mardalena, a woven-goods business owner herself, openly questioned the gap between catalog prices and the prices at the shop.

These questions were answered one by one by representatives from the KUEP groups and women’s cooperatives. Rasyid Rasiki, Project Manager at Yayasan CARE Peduli, which has been mentoring the 13 women’s groups since 2022 with support from PT Hindoli, also joined the discussion, walking guests through the long journey of economic empowerment that led to this moment.

“The products facing these prospective partners here in Palembang today come from a long journey. CARE worked alongside the women and village leaders, with support from PT Hindoli, with the goal of strengthening women economically. The woven products, for instance, were built on the idea that palm-frond waste from oil palm replanting programs, that once considered worthless, could be transformed into handicrafts. The same is true for the other flagship products. Our hope, one day, is to reach export markets,” Rasyid said.

Riska Wahyuni, CSR Manager at PT Hindoli, which has funded this collaboration with CARE Indonesia for four years, affirmed that the journey hasn’t been an easy one, and said she takes pride in how far the groups have come.

“We hope prospective partners will keep giving feedback to KUEP, so that products that once seemed like nothing more than palm-frond weaving can become widely known, reaching Palembang and even beyond the province,” she said.

Voices from the Village, Now Heard by the City

Across the table, the women running these businesses answered that trust with equal confidence. “Our business has been running for three years, but our reach has stayed limited to the village. We hope our shredded meat and local snack products can attract partnerships with more stores and reach the provincial market,” said Lisa, head of the Sekawan Perempuan Mandiri Cooperative from Sungai Lilin subdistrict.

That hope was answered that very day. Her cooperative became one of three producer cooperatives that signed the most agreements, landing partners including Amanda Brownies, Kerupuk 301, Dapur Ncha, Mie Ayam Abang Kaif, and Waroeng Pekhaha.

When an Agreement Is More Than Just a Signature

Of the 22 prospective partners who attended, 15 signed Supply Partnership Agreements with three women-led producer cooperatives from Musi Banyuasin, which were the Koperasi Produsen Srikandi Tangguh Berjaya Keluang, Koperasi Produsen Sekawan Perempuan Mandiri Sungai Lilin, and Koperasi Produsen Srikandi Tungkal Mandiri Tungkal Jaya.

A consignment system was agreed upon as the primary model, with payment made 14 days after goods are received and sold. The mechanism was agreed to minimally reduced the risk on women’s groups who’s still building their reach into new markets.

Even among the partners who didn’t sign that day, interest in KUEP products was clear. Several stores directly requested product samples before committing to a longer-term partnership. Similar interest came from songket weavers and retail craft businesses in Palembang, who described specific needs, from more affordable woven designs suited to high-volume markets, to ideas for blending palm-frond weaving with songket fabrics as a signature South Sumatran craft identity for the future.

The business meeting became proof that when women-led village-made products are packaged with consistent quality and supported the right way, city markets don’t just accept them, but they actively seek them out and appreciate them.

The interest shown toward woven crafts, snacks, and straw mushrooms from Musi Banyuasin’s women’s groups wasn’t just a meeting. It marked the beginning of a new supply chain, connecting villages directly to consumers in the provincial capital, with the potential to reach markets far beyond.

For the women of 13 KUEP groups across Musi Banyuasin who carried their handiwork to Palembang that day, the journey from their kitchens and front porches to city store shelves is no longer just a dream. It’s a signed agreement and the goods are ready to ship.

Written by. Swiny Adestika