Amuntai, S Kalimantan (Antaranews Kalsel) - Kembang Ilung Joint Business Group (KUB) in North Hulu Sungai Utara District, South Kalimantan, is overwhelmed by the demand for water hyacinth handicraft products from buyers outside the region. Even though water hyacinth grows a lot in the HSU area, which almost 89 percent is covered by swamps.
"We still lack craftsmen, including the raw material supply group," KUB Kembang Ilung Chairman Supian Noor said here on Tuesday.
Supian Noor said he buys water hyacinth from the community to meet raw material needs. "If every day people look for water hyacinth, the results are pretty good," he said.
In addition to buying new water hyacinth taken from swamps, KUB Kembang Ilung buys dried water hyacinth stems that have been knitted for handicrafts.
"Not bad if the length of two meters (the money) can be used to shop," Supian said.
He claimed to have had a market and consumer network, but until now it was still constrained by the lack of craftsmen and suppliers of raw materials.
Even though through the Purun and Water Hyacinth (Anpulung) Weaving Cluster Programs facilitated by Bank Indonesia, he has trained a number of woven craftsmen in a number of villages.
At present, Supian is asked by the National Zakat Agency (Baznas) to train 70 purun (kind of grass) woven and rattan craftsmen of from Palimbang Sari Village. He hopes that the number of trained craftsmen will be more and more to produce craft products that are in line with market tastes.
He teaches, among others, combining rattan with water hyacinth, while purun plaits are combined with motifs to make it more attractive.
The craftsmen at HSU generally sell purun bags at a price of IDR 25 thousand, but through KUB Kembang Ilung can sell it to consumers outside the area IDR 250 thousand to IDR 350 thousand or even millions of rupiah.
