Increasing the competitiveness of local soybean-based tempeh SMI through disruptive innovation

Abstract

Tempeh industry is included in the category of small and medium food industry (food SMI) which involves relatively a good number of business actors from the lower class economic community. Unfortunately, in many cases there are various problems related to the tempeh industry. The chief problem encountered in tempeh production is that the raw material—the soybeans—are dominated by overseas supplies, particularly from the USA. On the other hand, public perceptions, especially those of the majority of tempeh producers, opine that imported soybeans are superior to local beans viewed from physical and economic aspects. This is naturally very unfortunate since research findings have shown that tempeh made of local soybeans in some varieties has more superior qualities in their physicochemical and organoleptic properties, as well as being healthier due to being free of genetic engineering (GMO). The physicochemical data of soybeans and tempeh were obtained through laboratory tests, whereas the socio-economic factors were obtained through surveys completed with in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions. The research site was deliberately determined to be the Sanan Center for Tempeh Industry and Tempeh Crackers in Malang. The choice of the location was based on the consideration that Sanan tempeh industry was one of the largest tempeh and tempeh crackers processing industries in Malang City. Primary data of the socio-economic aspects was collected via interviews with six tempeh producers and was based on the following prerequisites: 1) tempeh producers with more than 20 years‘ experience in running tempeh industry; 2) tempeh producers who used two varieties of soybeans, namely local and imported soybeans; 3) age range between 30-70 years old. The laboratory data used to confront the perception results consists of: water content, ash content, protein content, carbohydrate content, yield, texture, color, taste, odor, preference, density, weight/seed size, seed skin color, antioxidant and phenolic levels. The research results for tempeh-producers preference toward local and imported soybeans as raw materials are: 1) imported soybeans excel in several aspects, i.e. larger size, better rising tempeh, better color, more identical in shape and cleaner, lower price, and more widely available; 2) local soybeans are perceived by tempeh producers as superior only in its more savory taste. However, laboratory test results gave some different results, such as: 1) the sizes of local soybeans (grobogan, argomulyo, panderman) are larger than imported beans; 2) local soybeans have higher rising power than imported beans (local density < imported density); 4) local yield (anjasmoro, argomulyo, grobogan) are higher than imported ones; 5) the protein content in local soybeans are higher than imported beans; 6) the antioxidant and phenolic levels of local soybeans (grobogan) are higher than imported ones; the organoleptic properties (taste, color, odor, preference) of local tempeh (wilis, bromo, baluran, anjasmoro) have higher values than that of imported beans. Conclusions to improve the competitiveness of tempeh made from local soybeans, the disruptive innovation is to expose the benefits of tempeh products from the aspects of nutrition (protein and yield), organoleptic (taste), health (antioxidants, dietary fiber and GMOfree).