Kaffir Oil As the Source of Income

When the furnaces of patchouli oil producers were extinguished as the oil price was drop, Samsudin's furnace kept on smoldering. The reason is he turns to distill kaffir lime oil. The 42 years old man produces 9 kg of Citrus hystrix oil every day. He valued the oil IDR600.000-IDR700.000/kg, thus he earned an IDR5,4 million-IDR6,3 million turnover in a day or IDR162-million-IDR189-million/month.

Despite so, it does not mean that producing kaffir lime oil is without obstacle. One of the obstacles is the quality of raw material. The raw material should be old leaves. Growers, however, are reluctant to fulfill it since it gives them difficulties while harvesting. They also do not want to suffer loss, which is understandably since old leaves are lighter so that they received smaller income. Accordingly, the yield is low. Another obstacle is stagnant supply as the effect of emulating with basic necessity as seasoning, particularly during great months in Javanese calendar.