Your name:  Helianti Hilman

Year the company was started:  2008

Where are the products made: Indonesia

What is the ‘key ingredient’ that makes your product line special?  Using abundant quantities of whole fresh vegetables, up to 32.5% depending on the variant.

What motivated you to start your company and create the products that we see today? 

Prior to Javara,  I was an Intellectual Property Lawyer. My interaction with the smallholder and indigenous farmers was when I was asked to give pro-bono legal advice to the network of farmers who are suffering from unfair contractual relationships with their buyers. After spending over 3 months visiting these farmers across Java and Bali, we realized that what they need is not a lawyer, but access to sustainable markets that are fair and respectful. Such a journey also opened my eyes to the wealth of Indonesia’s food biodiversity, food culture, and indigenous wisdom on sustainable food production that has huge potential to address global health issues, healthier consumption & well-being as well as solutions to climate change and ecological challenges. Unfortunately, such a wealth of food biodiversity is on the brink of being extinct and forgotten. Through Javara, we are on the mission of sustaining forgotten food biodiversity & food culture, the more it is being forgotten, the more we try to bring it to the mainstream market. We believe the power of market mobilizing the market participation for sustainable consumption, as it will lead to sustainable production of such heritage food, and thus will also improve the economic livelihood of the farmers & food artisans involved.

What are your company’s core values?

Delivering gourmet quality food products that meet the palate of the global market, nutrifying and contributing to healthier lifestyle & well-being, as well as creating impact for a healthier planet, healthier consumers, and prosperous farmers/food artisans. In doing so, we emphasize our work on sustaining, celebrating, and promoting products that are derived from the wealth of our food biodiversity, produced in ecologically friendly approaches, and giving consumers selections of healthier food products that allow them to participate in creating better environmental impacts, enabling them to shift into climate-smart/nature-positive food products. We take pride also in honoring and celebrating the farmers and food artisans behind the products by strengthening their entrepreneurial capabilities. Our business model is a company that nurtures the growth of rural enterprises, allowing an inclusive and equitable decentralization of wealth in remote and rural areas.

If you could tell a retailer three things about what makes your brand different, what would they be?

1. A celebration of Indonesia’s wealth in food biodiversity for healthier diets.
2. Traceable positive impacts at the origin.
3. Elevating gourmet quality artisan products of rural Indonesia to meet global standards (palate, quality, certifications).

What are some challenges you've had to overcome to bring your business to its current state?

• Building the confidence levels of rural enterprises in creating products for the global market.
• Capacity building across our supply chain to meet the quality, standards, and certifications required to penetrate the global market.
• Addressing inconsistencies in production quality and quantity despite natural ecological challenges and climate change.
• Addressing working capital and investment requirements, especially for the farmers/food artisans who do not have access to financing.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

• Travelling to remote and rural areas, especially to uncharted regions, exploring the food biodiversity and culinary culture
• Travelling around the world to explore world flavors and culinary culture, from farms to forating to farmer's markets and gourmet specialty shops and restaurants
• Advocacy & education to raise awareness on the importance of mindful consumption and its impacts towards planet earth, livelihood of farmers/food producers as well as healthier lifestyle and well-being.
• Creating food biodiversity gardens in various locations (at home, office space, school garden, community garden) to serve as a living lab, nursery, and educational space on Indonesia’s food biodiversity. I have collected over 300 edible food plants from across the Indonesian archipelago.
• Educating rural youth, women, and indigenous communities on how to document, keep alive, and make the best use of their food biodiversity and food culture. This is done through the School of Rural Food Artisan (Sekolah Seniman Pangan), which I established as part of my social responsibility
• Explorative cooking using unique and scarce ingredients to create flavors that can be enjoyed by friends, family, and beyond.