Processed Products of PT Meraki Cipta Rasa Penetrate the Export Market

Cireng or fried aci is not a new snack for the Indonesian people. But who would have thought that Aci or chewy fried tapioca flour could penetrate the export market?Cireng is the first product of PT Meraki Cipta Rasa. This simple snack, the result of the innovation by the husband-and-wife duo Meliana and Redi, experienced a boom in 2009. Every day, 17,000 pieces of Cireng were sold out. However, sales plummeted drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Initially, Meraki only produced Cireng. Every night we produced 17,000 Cireng, then in the morning they were picked up by distributors to be sold to schools. During the pandemic in 2020 when all schools were closed, our sales also dropped drastically, but we kept thinking about how to survive. Finally, we tried to innovate by packaging it as frozen. "We thought that when people work and study from home, they still need energy from practical ready-to-eat food," said Santi Hakim, Director of PT Meraki Cipta Rasa, during a visit by titikkata to her workshop located on Jalan Citanduy Pondok Cabe, South Tangerang, on Monday, (12/06/2023).Feeling a breath of fresh air through frozen food sales, PT Meraki began to rise again until it finally decided to collaborate with similar businesses and innovate to produce other foods such as sausages, chicken floss, somay, cilor, and various sambals. "Until now, Meraki Cipta Rasa has produced 22 types of processed foods that are produced alternately every day, with an average turnover of 30-35 million per month," said Santi. "From our 22 products, each has its own advantages, such as the sambal pucung product, which we are the only ones producing. Sambal pucung is one of the traditional Gabus Pucung dishes, and what we have is its extract." For the cireng product, the most popular is white cireng, while our flagship product is sausage because it is made without preservatives, coloring, or MSG. Meanwhile, the products that have already entered the export market are chicken floss and sambal, and surprisingly, cireng has also been exported to Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste," explained Santi. For production, PT Meraki Cipta Rasa is assisted by 7 housewives who live around the workshop. "Our products are marketed both offline and online. For online marketing, we are present in almost all marketplaces, while for offline marketing, our products can be found in several supermarkets, such as GS, Diamond, and other retail markets," explained Santi. According to Santi, Meraki Cipta Rasa is derived from the Greek language, meaning to do something with full soul. So, Meraki Cipta Rasa means creating flavor with full soul. Meraki oversees 2 brands, namely Wizz, which focuses on chicken products, and Pondok Cabe, which specializes in flour-based products and traditional sambal. "Why Pondok Cabe? Because our production is in Pondok Cabe, and indeed, the Pondok Cabe brand is known for producing spicy foods, such as cireng mercon and various sambals," said Santi, who already holds halal certification and patents for her products.