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SOURCING ON LOCATION
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~SUMATRA SOURCING
Tripper’s sourcing team just came back from visiting new Cinnamon
plantations in Sumatra. We have identified that South Sumatra
(Bengkulu, Tanjung Sakti, Pagar Alam, Pulau Beringin) is now
harvesting Cinnamon bark. These new locations add to our supplier
list, as well as Tripper’s area of Cinnamon Origin.
We expect to be working with these plantations as soon as prices get
more competitive. These sources give us new opportunities since they
are located at the southern part of Sumatra, which is closer to our
manufacturing factory in Jakarta. The ten (10) day trip was a blast,
not only did we meet new people but it also allowed us to see the
Cinnamon trees are in fact still there. With the new team strategy
of sourcing, combining 2-3 employees from different work backgrounds
(Supply Chain, Quality Control, Finance, Production), we hope to
bring fresh ideas in each department and a better perspective on how
our Cinnamon distribution works, from farmer to Tripper.
~Meidy V
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~SIAU SOURCING
Recently Tripper had problems with high aflatoxin (toxic compounds
that are strictly regulated in food products) levels in its nutmeg.
Aflatoxins are produced by a certain mold found in hot and humid
climates, often found as a result of poor harvesting, drying and/or
storage conditions.
One of Tripper’s major sources of nutmeg is Siau, a small island
north of Sulawesi. From there it can be seen how Gunung Karangetang
(the island’s active volcano) spewed out lava and ash, thus
providing the thousands of nutmeg trees with the additional
nutrition, resulting in the large nutmeg kernels the island is
famous for. Here a pilot project was set up to obtain 1 ton of
nutmeg by applying Tripper’s own harvesting and drying methods,
which resulted in aflatoxin-free nutmeg. Besides that, the impact of
different drying methods and storage conditions on aflatoxin
formation were studied. A team of three (3) people, Talita, Danan
and Arne spent two (2) weeks on the island working on the project.
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Although several farmers harvest and dry their
nutmeg properly, many people are looking for easy money and collect
them from the ground, which gives a greater chance of mold
contamination. Most farmers are unaware of the problem, or blame the
aflatoxin levels on contamination by mixing product from other
islands. According to them, Siau nutmeg is of the best quality and
they don’t want to hear there is something wrong with it. To
consistently achieve low aflatoxin levels in the future, connections
will have to be made with the local farmers to gain their trust and
convince them to adopt new harvesting processes. In the meantime,
the best outcome will be to find efficient sorting techniques and
make strict quality control of the nutmeg at origin.
~Arne H
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INDONESIAN ECONOMY UPDATE
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Over the last 8 years, Indonesia has shown very
solid economic performance with steady growth (6.8 % expected in
2012), low inflation and strong foreign investment.
At the public debt level, Indonesia’s situation would be the envy of
the world at 24% of GDP. As a comparison countries such as Japan,
Greece or Italy are over 100 % of GDP. And following the Asian
crisis of 1998, banks have restructured and today their balance
sheets are very solid. This means that Europe’s problems (Greece,
Spain …) are unlikely to significantly infect Indonesian banks .
Indonesia’s export growth is slowing down in line with the rest of
Asia. In May, imports were actually higher than exports for the
first time in many months. With a population over 250 million people
Indonesia ranks number four in the world after the USA and ahead of
Brazil. Because domestic demand is very strong imports are likely to
increase and therefore a trade deficit is looming which is not good
in the long run.
Indonesia must also keep striving to improve the overall country’s
infrastructure (roads, trains …) which are currently a clear
obstacle to higher growth. As an example transporting spices from
Manado to Bali should take 48 hours and it sometimes takes up to 2
weeks.Overall, Indonesia is in a good spot today and foreign
investment is steadily growing. Air Asia is in the process of
relocating their headquarters from Malaysia to Jakarta. Cosmetic
giant L’Oréal is building its largest manufacturing plant near
Jakarta. Honda has just revealed plans to build a huge factory to
double their share of the Indonesian motorcycle market. At the same
time the government must be careful and avoid protectionist moves
that may send a negative signal to the market. The recent debacle of
the DBS DANAMON bank takeover was not perceived well and this is a
bit worrying ahead of the next 2014 presidential election.
~Olivier B
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6 MONTHS FROM HARVEST
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RECIPE
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KLAPPERTAART
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Many Indonesian
pastries, cakes and cookies came
from Dutch influence. Some recipes
were invented as Dutch Indies fusion
cuisine, using native Indonesian
ingredients, but using European
pastry techniques.
One such recipe is the klappertaart
(coconut tart), which is still very
popular today in North Sulawesi.
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Ingredients 1
- 250 ml Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 250 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp COBRA Vanilla Extract
- 50 grams Caster Sugar
Ingredients 2 (mixed)
- 20 grams cornstarch
- 100 ml water
Ingredients 3
- 3 young coconuts (meat)
- 100 g raisins, soaked
- 100 grams skinless walnuts
Ingredients 4 (garnish):
- DRAGON Cinnamon powder for garnish
How to Make:
preheat oven 150 C
1. Combine ingredients 1 in a
saucepan. Mix well and heat until
boiling.
2. Add in ingredients 2. Stir until
thick and shiny. Lift.
3. Mix in ingredients 3, stir and
transfer to a small bowl.
4. Sprinkle with DRAGON Cinnamon
powder.
5. Bake in a preheated oven (150oC)
for 15 minutes +.
6. Remove and cool.
7. Refrigerate.
8. Serve.
~Joyce
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More and more we are realizing that what sets us
apart from other spice companies is our close proximity with the
actual farmers. Companies want to source at origin, but having a
direct supplier in these developing countries is not the solution if
the product that they are supplying you has been sitting in their
warehouse for years!
We have been working very closely with our suppliers, and are proud
to announce that we will be launching our "6 months from harvest"
program. Starting this June, all FCL orders shipping from our
Jakarta warehouse will be labeled "6 months from harvest" & all
lots that will arrive in your warehouse will be under this six-month
threshold.
This extra effort of traceability will put Dragon Cinnamon a step
above any other ground cinnamon on the market.
~Francois B
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ISO CERTIFICATION FOR TRIPPER
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After a long process, Tripper
Nature Jakarta is now certified as a 3rd Party “GMA
SAFE” & “ISO 22000” by the Food Safety
Management System. Both audits were conducted in
February, and Tripper Nature Jakarta passed them
smoothly. In April we passed ISO 9001 - Quality
Management System ‘Stage 1 Audit’ for Tripper Nature
Bali, and we will proceed to ‘Stage 2 Audit’ this
June. These certifications help us to maintain the
best quality, service and value to our customer's
needs, which is you!
~Fiza M
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AAIC 2012 FIELD TRIP TO TRIPPER
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In May we hosted the closing session of the AAIC -
Asian Aroma Ingredients Congress & Expo at our offices in Bali,
Indonesia. Attendees from all around the world (Europe, China,
India, USA ...) came to our factory, where we showed them our
manufacturing methods to cure green vanilla beans, along with our
sorting & quality control processes. After this mini field trip,
we then gathered in our showroom to see the TRIPPER portfolio of
spice ingredients. Guests were also treated to a "spicy" breakfast,
hopefully leaving them with good memories of our products baked in
the cinnamon rolls and vanilla cookies.
Overall the meeting was a
success & we look forward to hosting many more in the near
future ... welcome!
~Francois B
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TRIPPER NEWSLETTER/ISSUE 11/JUNE2012
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