Aep Supriyadi
Vanilla bean is one of the most important spices commodity across the continent. It has been used in wide variety of products, such as food and beverage flavoring agent, cosmetic ingredients, and other industrial products. Indonesia is one of the biggest producers of vanilla bean world-wide, about 23% from the total supply. Which supported by many stakeholders including small holder farmers in Sumedang, West Java. The harvested vanilla bean had to meet the desired standard of length, moisture content and color to be sold at relatively high price, up to five million rupiah per kg. However vanilla beans that do not meet the standard or so called low-quality vanilla bean, sold at a far cheaper price. It is valued no more than one million rupiah per kg, with more beans compared to the regular one. Therefore, the farmers sometimes just use them for their own need, instead of selling the low-quality vanilla. Even though low-quality vanilla can be valorized further into economically valued product, such as concentrated vanilla syrup. This community development project aims to valorize low-quality vanilla beans with simple technology to produce concentrated vanilla syrup (CVS) as a unique product from small holder farmer in Pamekarsari village, Sumedang, empowering the farmer as well as to increase their welfare. Concentrated vanilla syrup was successfully produced from a low-quality dried vanilla bean and a mixture of sugar solution, with lump sugar mixture as the most preferred one based on chemical and biological analysis and product evaluation. It has meet quality standard of SNI as syrup product, which has 66,8% of sugar concentration, minimum microbial contamination and no trace of heavy metals. Dissemination regarding the CVS making process was conducted on Friday, 13 November 2013 involving 15 members of the famer group at Pamekarsari Village, Sumedang, West jJava. The produced CVS can be an alternative valorization method of low-quality vanilla bean for small holder vanilla farmer in Sumedang to increase intrinsic and economic value of low-quality vanilla beans as well as farmer’s welfare.
Penerapan Karya Tulis, Pelaksanaan Kegiatan Kepedulian Sosial berupa pendidikan/penyuluhan/pendampingan
Valorize low-quality vanilla beans with simple technology to produce concentrated vanilla syrup (CVS) as a unique product from small holder farmer in Pamekarsari village, Sumedang, empowering the farmer as well as to increase their welfare.