SOURCING ON LOCATION

~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.

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

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

6 MONTHS FROM HARVEST

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

ISO CERTIFICATION FOR TRIPPER

AAIC 2012 FIELD TRIP TO TRIPPER

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