Yusuf Ramli, The Winding Road of a Fisheries Entrepreneur

Now Yusuf Ramli maintains 1,200 employees. They exclude the thousands engaged in brining and workers in this sector who depend on his daily fish supply.

KOMPAS/KHAERUDIN

Yusuf Ramli

Yusuf Ramli never imagined that his journey through life would reach the point where thousands of people’s livelihoods would depend on his business. Young Yusuf was once forced to sleep at the Tanah Abang Market Mosque out of homelessness. At his lowest point, Yusuf survived at the mercy of billiard players in Padang city.

In Padang, Yusuf helped match rummy cards or arrange balls on the billiard table for the sake of obtaining a dish of instant noodles. It was around 1996. He had just rented a boat to catch lobster in the Indian Ocean between Nias Island and the Mentawai Islands. The boat and supplies to put to sea were ready. However, the captain refused to depart because the boat was leaking. To avoid a loss, Yusuf finally decided he would skipper the boat.

Yusuf gained his skippering skills when he studied at the Intermediate Fishery Business School (SUPM) in Dumai and the Fishery Business Academy (AUP) in Jakarta. Yusuf risked his life in the Indian Ocean with the leaking boat.

“Every night I had to bail out water from the boat. Reaching Mentawai, I dared not sail anymore,” he said.

When he returned to Padang, he had no money. But Yusuf was unwilling to go back to his native village in Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau. His arduous journey through life helped shape him into what he is today: a fishery entrepreneur with a turnover of some Rp 1.3 trillion.

Yusuf comes from an ordinary family. He is the seventh of 15 siblings. His parents are garment sellers in Air Tiris Market. After finishing junior high school in Air Tiris in 1987, Yusuf was tempted to try his luck in Malaysia as his siblings had done. But his intentions changed when he met Dumai SUPM principal Ma’ruf Maryadi Siregar, who was seeking prospective students as far as Kampar.

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“I belonged to the second group of Dumai SUPM students. I was ready to study there because it was free of charge,” related Yusuf.

Unlike the other Dumai SUPM students who stayed in the dormitory, he was offered to stay with Ma’ruf. There, Yusuf had to do all household chores, from washing clothes to cleaning the house.

Ma’ruf encouraged him to further his studies at the AUP (now the Fishery Business Polytechnic) in Jakarta in 1989, and he graduated three years later. After his AUP graduation, Yusuf was offered a position teaching at his alma mater, Dumai SUPM.

KOMPAS/KHAERUDIN

Yusuf Ramli

He declined the offer. Yusuf felt unfit for the teaching profession. He decided to go to sea and worked on a Canadian fishing boat for 2.5 years. With his earnings from working on the Canadian boat, Yusuf, who already had a family, opened a food stall in Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta. “What else could we do? The simplest business needing no connections was a food stall,” he said.

His business only lasted for a few months. “Every day there was always stale leftover food,” he recalled.

When his food stall business went bust, his family broke up. Yusuf was left by his wife. Practically, he, who had previously lived in the house of his parents-in-law, no longer had a dwelling place.

Tanah Abang

Yusuf later tried his luck in Tanah Abang Market. But as he had no capital, he could only sell duster coats belonging to garment kiosk owners. He was peddling the coats around the market far from the kiosks. Weekends were the days he looked forward to because the kiosk owners normally closed their booths. Returning from his peddling work, he stayed at the market mosque.

In 1997, his friend introduced him to doctor Lukas, who was seeking a driver. When he worked as a driver, doctor Lukas introduced Yusuf to the head of Al Islah Bondowoso Islamic boarding school, Kiai Maksum. Finding out that the driver had studied at the AUP, doctor Lukas and Kiai Maksum provided Yusuf with capital to sell fish in Muara Baru Market, Jakarta.

“Like Pak Ma’ruf, doctor Lukas and Kiai Maksum are my foster parents,” said Yusuf, recalling the persons with the greatest contribution to his life.

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For a year in 1998, Yusuf was selling in Muara Baru Market from 6 p.m. to midnight. At night he got along with fellow fish sellers. During the daytime, Yusuf associated with fish trading bosses in Muara Baru. Yusuf said the period was the best schooling in his life. He began to get acquainted with the fisheries business from the upstream to the downstream, from fishing to distribution.

In 1999, a boss in Muara Baru who used to export layur (hairtail fish) to Korea gave Yusuf the opportunity to become a supplier. Yusuf was searching for layur as far as Palabuhanratu, Sukabumi and Binuangeun, Banten. From there, he started learning how to process fish for export.

To become a fisheries entrepreneur, besides having to own a fishing boat and transport boat, he also had to own a cold storage warehouse and cooler truck. Doctor Lukas introduced him to a frozen chicken cold storage warehouse owner in Gunung Sindur, Bogor. As it was no longer used for frozen chicken business, the storage warehouse was rented to Yusuf.

KOMPAS/KHAERUDIN

Yusuf Ramli

In 2000, for the first time, he managed to export fish to Korea. A total of 25 tons of layur were exported in one container of 40 feet.

“I was even saying prayers around the container out of my gratefulness,” he said with a laugh.

Three years later, Yusuf saw another opportunity at home. The business of fish brining found in all parts of Indonesia needed large quantities of salt water fish like tuna, layang (decapterus), salmon and mackerel. Yusuf expanded his business, He built fish processing factories in Bitung, Kendari and Banggai Laut, among other places, to preserve his fish supply. After being processed at the factories, the fish was delivered to Jakarta and distributed to a number of brining centers on Java.

At present Yusuf’s company owns at least 11 fish processing factories all over Indonesia. He supplies up to 1,000 tons of fish per month to fish brining industries. A factory, according to him, can have five to 10 suppliers. Each supplier has at least 5 fishing boats of 50 GT.

For the foreign market, Yusuf exports layur, tuna, oysters and layang umpan or muroaji (round scad). Yusuf is now even one of the biggest exporters of salted fish in Indonesia. Not many salted fish entrepreneurs in the country have overseas markets. Yet Yusuf’s company is one of the largest salted fish suppliers to Sri Lanka.

I don’t feel like those who once worked with me are rivals when they succeed at becoming entrepreneurs.

Today, amid his business success, Yusuf doesn’t forget that his achievements are thanks to the contribution and prayers of many people. He revealed that at least 10 of his former employees had now become fisheries entrepreneurs. Yusuf opened himself to anybody wishing to learn fisheries business from the upstream to the downstream.

“I don’t feel like those who once worked with me are rivals when they succeed at becoming entrepreneurs. I’m even pleased. Allah has arranged for the fortune of all mankind,” he added.

Now he maintains 1,200 employees. They exclude the thousands engaged in brining and workers in this sector who depend on his daily fish supply. His company annually opens the opportunity for apprenticeship and employment to SUPM and AUP graduates. He has also joined fisheries programs by five Islamic boarding schools, including that of Kiai Maksum. Three similar schools in West Java even routinely receive 1 ton of brined fish for free distribution to their surrounding communities.

Yusuf Ramli

Born: Air Tiris, Kampar, 15 June, 1971

Wife: Astri Wita

Child: Mariska Rahma Yusuf

Education:

- Dumai SUPM (1987-1989)

- Fishery Business Academy, Jakarta (1989-1991)

Occupation: President Director of Komira Group

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.