Women have always been at the forefront of social change in Asia; however, Helianti Hilman is not your average social do-gooder. She loves problems. "The more problems I have, the more butterflies in the stomach and the bigger the adrenalin rush thinking about solutions and creating products," she says. "If there is a problem, there is a product. I like creating things."
Hilman, a speaker at last month's {Re} Food Forum in Bangkok, is founder and CEO of Javara, an artisanal food purveyor upscaling agricultural chains to bring community-based, organic products to the wider market.
"I was trained as a lawyer, specialising in intellectual property rights. I eventually worked as a freelance consultant with UNDP [the United Nations Development Programme] before coming across a group of indigenous farmers in Java," says Hilman. This casual meeting with the farmers in 2008 changed the course of Hilman's life, along with the farmers and the indigenous product scene for Indonesia.
"I love to cook, so when I was brought into the farmers network and was exposed to all this biodiversity, the smell, the aroma, the colour the texture, it was like going to a toy store. I was so excited, and when you like to cook, a lot of things go through your head, like how can I use this produce and in what ways? I was on a roadshow for three months visiting networks of indigenous farmers and learning about the things they work with, in the remote corners of Java.
"I quickly realised that the world was struggling with healthier diets and there is a huge demand for alternative diets like gluten-free, vegan or even people suffering from diabetes. And here, I had access to this huge biodiversity of God-given produce that caters to these diets. If these are lost, then it is a loss of mankind."
Helianti Hilman, centre.
Javara -- meaning "champion" in Sanskrit -- was born, Hilman says, out of this spontaneity and not by design. She felt the need to bring this "champion produce from champion farmers" across Indonesia under one roof and make them accessible to the world.
"We wanted to highlight and celebrate the champion-ness of these remote areas, of these indigenous people. A lot of the efforts that are concentrated on similar things focus too much on the poverty aspects of these regions, the sadness of farmers, etc. We don't want to do that. We want people to celebrate the products and the farmers' dedication and strength."
What started out small has become a huge undertaking, and currently Javara works with more than 52,000 farmers and has 2,000 artisanal producers creating 600 products, which are sold under 14 categories. It has expanded throughout the archipelago, into the remotest of areas on the remotest of islands.
Javara's first product ever was Heritage Rice, produced by the first group of farmers Hilman came in contact with.
"Our business model is to be a company that creates companies at the local level. We are sort of creating mini-Javaras in each of the regions we enter. We cannot operate everything remotely from Jakarta. We need to build local capacity so they are able to deliver the quality we need," says Hilman.
Javara invests in building entrepreneurship at the grassroots level, in remote areas. When entering a region, the company immediately looks for a champion -- a person with the passion and discipline, as well as the heart and the empathy, to support and spread the work to other farmers. "We look for a person who can be groomed as an entrepreneur. We generally scout for champions who already work as social entrepreneurs or community go-getters and are ready to learn new things," adds Hilman.
When Javara decides on entering a particular region, Hilman is the first to scan the area for indigenous products, to see if it is feasible to create solutions, since she is the one with the perspective of the farmers and the market, and product development. "It is important to see if prospects can be turned into low-hanging fruit. When you work with farmers, they don't want to wait two or three years for results, they want to see them immediately." Once she sees potential, then the second-level team comes in to perfect capacity building, after which the certification team enters, and finally the production team sets up the processing.
"We enter remote areas in layers. The entire process can take between three months and a year, from inception to market, depending on how complicated the product and added-value processing is," says Hilman.
Javara chooses to highlight champion produce from champion farmers, rather than poverty aspects of the region and the sadness of farmers.
Javara hasn't stopped at creating products for every problem, Hilman has taken it a step further and set up the Javara Academy to train students and farmers. The aim is to provide a more methodical, structured way to reach out to young farmers and foragers so they can become entrepreneurs. The academy is for people younger than 35. "When Javara was first founded, our partners were around 65, and now 40% are below 35, which shows how the ideology has caught on," adds Hilman.
Javara was first founded as a non-governmental organisation but was a failure for the first two years. No retail business would issue them a purchase order. Hilman then decided to register Javara as a company, with the same mission, and it has remained successful for the last eight years. Registering as a company changed the entire course for Javara -- it was easier to find export markets than domestic. "We have grown exponentially every year. We became media darlings and won a lot of awards and had the spotlight on us. Only after this were we accepted in the domestic market. Domestic sales are now 45%," says Hilman.
It was only when Javara and Hilman gained global recognition that they became champions for the Indonesian government, for recognising rural areas and indigenous products.
Keeping work and family balanced while running an empire is hard, but Hilman manages it well.
"My six-year-old son travels with me. However, now it is a bit more difficult, since he's in school. I take him out of school, because I consider this an education, too. He is exposed to travel, meeting different kinds of people and learning new things. He even knows how to spot an organic logo, because he has been exposed to all this, spending time in Javara. He also spends time with the farmers and knows how to grow things. Of course, it is also very important for me to get the support of my husband. Having my husband on-board is a priority because one cannot do all this without the support of your partner. He is the one who pushed me to do this full-time and here we are, with Javara."
Hilman is very firm about one thing: "Javara is not [made by] the hand of one person. It is important to inspire the younger generations throughout Indonesia to mimic what is being done, to fall in love with our country's biodiversity. We need the local guardians and the local champions of the regions. That is what Javara has been doing since the beginning. Coaching and mentoring to spread out the virus of falling in love with our biodiversity and safeguarding it."
ACHIEVEMENTS
Helianti Hilman received the BRI Srikandi Award for Sociopreneur on April 18. She was selected as Endeavor Entrepreneur 2016; the Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2015; and Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young Indonesia in 2013. In 2014, she was recognised by Forbes Indonesia for its Inspiring Women Honor Roll.
