Bogor’s Silk House works with farmers

Theresia Sufa , The Jakarta Post , Bogor | Tue, 09/01/2009 11:48 AM

Natural spinner: Rumah Sutera Alam is currently the only cottage industry in West Java’s Bogor to work on silk yarn spinning. JP/Theresia Sufa

Rumah Sutra Alam or the Natural Silk House in Ciapus district, Bogor regency, is the cottage industry most frequently visited by students, lecturers and retirees across Indonesia.

In addition to its mulberry plantations, the natural silk center also has a silkworm nursery and undertakes silk yarn spinning and silk cloth weaving.

Visitors to the house mostly wish to learn how to breed silkworms and at the same time observe the process of spinning and weaving.

Owner Tatang Gozali Gandasasmita started his silk yarn spinning business in 2001, with the cottage industry set up on a 2.5-hectare block of land, as something to do during retirement.

“As a retiree I love keeping busy in a way that benefits a lot of people, and this spinning work provides jobs for youths in the Bogor vicinity and helps raise the income of mulberry growers,” he said.

“I call it a silk house because the entire process of making silk takes place here.”

The former employee of Bandung’s PTP-15 state estate company explained that it all begins with the hatching of silkworm eggs that he buys from Candi Roto, Central Java, and Soppeng, South Sulawesi.

“We buy 15 to 20 boxes of silkworm eggs each month, each containing 25,000 eggs,” Tatang said.

“Two weeks later, after they hatch into larvae, we deliver them to mulberry growers, who nurse the young worms to develop into cocoons.”

In running the silk industry, Tatang works with farmers from Bogor, Sukabumi and Cianjur, all in West Java.

“We have 80 farmers as partners but only 40 of them focus on mulberry planting, while the rest grow vegetables as their main crops, handling mulberries as their side business,” he said.

So far, Tatang added, his cocoon production has reached only about half a ton per month, compared with his industry’s monthly capacity of around 2 tons.

“We’re still short of cocoons as we need 2 tons a month for spinning into silk yarn. So we’re trying to approach more farmers, particularly in Bogor, in order to raise silkworms that we supply on the condition that they first have their own mulberry plantations to feed the worms,” he said, adding that he pays Rp 25,000 per kg of cocoons produced, based on national standards.

Downstream process: Workers at Rumah Sutra Alam further weave the spun yarn into silk cloth. JP/Theresia Sufa

The hatching of worms and their growth into cocoons takes 30 days. The cocoons are then spun into silk yarn for further sale, mostly to weavers in Garut, Tasikmalaya and Cirebon, all in West Java, at a price of Rp 350,000 per kg. A cocoon produces around 800 to 1,000 meters of yarn on average; the remaining yarn is woven for sale to any visitors to the silk house.

The woven fabric in the silk house is sold at prices ranging from Rp 50,000 to Rp 3 million depending on the thickness of the material — the thicker the material, the more expensive, because it consumes a lot more yarn.

Besides plain silk cloth, there are also pieces with batik motifs. The silk batik is processed in Cirebon and Pekalongan in Central Java, which usually takes four months to complete.

“I’m very eager to help mulberry growers to develop their business by also cultivating silkworms, so that every time the Bogor regency administration and the Makassar Natural Silk Center offer aid to boost our silk house, I always recommend that the aid be given to mulberry farmers,” Tatang said.

A gift from nature: The cottage industry required monthly some two tons of silk cocoons to be processed into silk yarn. JP/Theresia Sufa

“I’ve made a proposal for aid to develop silkworm nurseries for all mulberry farmers in Bogor, in response to the Makassar silk center’s offer. When they join the silkworm raising effort, we won’t face cocoon shortages anymore.”

Ilyas, a mulberry farmer who lives in Pasir Eurih village in Bogor’s Tamansari district, said he started growing mulberries in 2001, after receiving training in the method of mulberry planting from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB). He owns a 3,500-meter-square block of land for his mulberry trees; his main focus is rice paddy.

“I’m growing mulberries only as a side job because I earn very little from the trees. Mulberry leaves are harvested every two months and I sell them to the silk house for Rp 300,000 per ton,” he said.

“I can increase my income if I join silkworm breeding, but I have no proper place to do it. The nursery for silkworm raising has to be sterile and protected from predators.”

According to the secretary of Bogor regency’s Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Office, Siti Nurianty, the silk house is the only silk processing place in Bogor.

“We hope this silk house can truly serve as a silk center and at the same time a tourist destination for silk cloth shopping,” she said. “We therefore always offer our assistance for its development and invite Pak Tatang to various exhibitions. But the most important thing is to support mulberry farmers’ silkworm breeding by providing proper facilities.”

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