Rather than buying up land on a large scale, PT Bentang Alam Sumatera (PT BAS) has chosen a slower path that may prove more durable: building the capacity of partner farmers. Relationships with farmers, field mentoring and land management form the foundation of the company’s entire essential oil supply chain.
For the Medan-based exporter, that choice means its raw material sources are not concentrated in a single plantation. Supply is instead built through local networks that understand the land, seasons and commodities of their own areas — PT BAS’s partner farmers are spread across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, with the commodities and forms of mentoring tailored to each region’s potential. A number of nature-based model management sites have also been developed in North Sumatra and Aceh.
Two positions within the company reflect how seriously it takes this approach. Mustaqim, S.Hut., M.Si. handles production and partnerships, while M. Irfany serves as agroforestry specialist. That structure shows that partnership at PT BAS is understood not merely as a buy-sell transaction, but as a process of building community capacity while keeping the farming landscape sustainable.
The process itself is a long one. Company activity records show a chain of mentoring that runs from meetings with patchouli farming groups, to the weighing of dried patchouli stems and leaves, to distillation using simple stills near the farms. The resulting patchouli and citronella oils are then packed into jerry cans and sent to PT BAS’s facilities for further processing — every stage requires tight coordination so raw material keeps meeting quality specifications as it moves from farm to market.
In terms of land area, the network covers an estimated 80 hectares of patchouli plots spread from Blangkejeren through parts of North Sumatra and West Sumatra, plus around 10 hectares of citronella grass in Blangkejeren. In Besitang, Langkat Regency, farmers have developed an even more diverse planting pattern: ylang-ylang, culinary lemongrass, citronella grass, patchouli, cananga and vanilla all growing within the same area. This kind of mixed cropping pattern is in line with an agroforestry approach, in which a single stretch of land can yield several commodities at once.
This agroforestry approach is driven by more than just land efficiency. It gives farmers more than one source of income while reducing their dependence on a single commodity. For the essential oil supply chain, both land sustainability and farmers’ income stability determine the long-term availability of raw material.
But the model is not without its challenges. A network of smallholders scattered across mountainous and rural areas needs consistent mentoring, cultivation training, quality oversight and carefully planned logistics. With an in-house team of only seven, PT BAS depends heavily on farmers’ trust and collaboration with local stakeholders to keep all of it running.
For patchouli farmers in Blangkejeren, or cananga and vanilla farmers in Besitang, this kind of partnership opens a path to markets that would be difficult to reach alone. In the end, that chain connects small farms in Sumatra to the perfume, cosmetics and food industries, along with other commodity buyers in a far wider market.
Source: Compiled from the PT Bentang Alam Sumatera 2026 profile, including documentation of partner-farmer mentoring activities in Aceh and North Sumatra.
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