TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Near century-old herbal factory Nyonya Meneer went bankrupt after failing to pay a debt of Rp7.04 billion to its creditors. The Semarang District Court declared the company bankrupt on Thursday last week.
According to the Association of Herbal and Traditional Medicines' chairman Dwi Ranny Pertiwi Zarman, many major industries of traditional medicine have to go the extra mile to compete with other products at domestic and overseas levels.
In the case of Nyonya Meneer, they have to bersaing dengan jamu illegal as well.
"Many illegal products are being distributed online. Meanwhile, the advertisement of legal products is controlled for the sake of regulations," she said on Sunday, August 6.
Another challenge to the herbal medicine industry is the high requirement cost for a small business to become a large industry. "Not all herbal medicine companies have mastered and used IT technology as their sales base."
The bankruptcy lawsuit against Nyonya Meneer was filed by creditor Hendrianto Bambang Santoso from Sukoharjo Regency. He said that PT Nyonya Meneer did not fulfill its debt obligations. With the bankruptcy verdict, a curator has been appointed to settle Nyonya Meneer's debts to creditors.
The Industry Ministry's director general of small and medium industries Gati Wibawaningsih regretted the closure of Jamu Nyonya Meneer due to bankruptcy, especially because the company would be one century old in two years.
Gati said that the family-owned business should have made innovations to stay in competition against new products.
PUTRI A. | GHOIDA RAHMAH | DESTRIANITA
