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Romi Saryadi has a job many teenagers can only dream of: Tree climbing!

The sixteen-year-old works at a coconut farm in Tanjong Pinang, It's the Capital

Tanjong Pinang, or Negeri Segantang Lada, is the capital on the island of Bintan in Indonesia. Bintan is the largest island of the 3,200 islands that make up the Riau Islands province of Indonesia.

Tanjong Pinang is home to about150,000 people. It’s a trading, shipping, shopping and tourism center in the region.

Closea village on the island of Bintan in Indonesia, where about 500 coconut trees grow.

The coconuts have turned from green to brown, which means it's harvest time.Harvest time

Coconut palms grow for three years till they bear fruit.

From the moment they start bearing fruit, they can be harvested every three months till they die.

They thrive on sandy soil.

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Just to make sure, Romi and his friend shake one tree. They don't hear any sound of water. It's definitely time to take the coconuts down.

Who's scaling that coconut tree?
Romi Up a Tree

CloseHarvesting coconuts is not an easy task, but the grooves (Romi calls them "holes") on the side of the tree make it easier to climb them.Groovy

When a coconut tree starts to grow, a groove is cut on its side every six months.

By the time it starts to bear fruit, there will be five or six grooves all the way up the trunk. These "steps" make climbing up a coconut tree much easier.

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"Without the holes on the side of the tree, climbing would be super tough," says Romi, in broken English.

It takes about one or two minutes to scale a tree. Once up there, Romi supports himself by clinging onto the branches with one hand and twisting off coconuts with another.

Three coconuts dropCoconuts to Go

During each harvest season, each coconut tree typically yields 15 to 20 coconuts.

From 500 coconut trees, that means at least 7,500 coconuts harvested each season!

Close with loud thuds onto the ground.

"You first climb up the tree like a monkey, then you push onto a coconut and turn it," explains Romi. "The fun part is when you drop it."

Hard working people

Click to see Romi's work space.

Romi's Office



CloseOnce all of the coconuts have fallen to the ground, Romi and his friend pick them up and put them into wheelbarrows.

They wheel the coconuts to the back of the farm, and leave them in piles for a few days to dry out. The boys are now ready to de-husk them.

Many people in Tanjong Pinang work as hard as Romi. The main town on Bintan Island is, after all, a hub for trading and tourism.

The most common jobs here are on plantations (mostly rubber and coconut) and in resorts (adventure camps and hotels).

Right now, Romi gets paid 125,000 rupiah, or $11.80, a week to work on the farm. He is happy about that, but hopes that he will be able to work at a resort one day. Rupiah

The currency's name derives from the Indian monetary unit ruppe. Many Indonesians also call it "perak" (which means silver in Indonesian when referring to the rupiah).

Coin denominations range from 25 to 1,000 rupiah, while banknotes range in denominations from 100 to 100,000 rupiah.

The rupiah became Indonesia's official currency in 1949, when it replaced the Indonesian Dutch East Indies guilder.

CloseHe's heard that workers there earn much more.

"But first, I have to brush up my English," says Romi. He's working on it!

In the meantime, he still has to dehusk coconuts.Take it Off

De-husking, or taking the hard outer shell off a coconut, is the difficult part of Romi's job:

1. First Romi pierces a coconut on the side with a solar--a sharp metal spear that is fixed to the ground.


2. With two hands, Romi pushes the coconut away from him to pry off a part of the husk. This reveals the fibrous inner layer of the coconut.


3. Now, all Romi has to do is to tear off the rest of the husk with his bare hands. He is then left with a completely de-husked coconut.


4. Done!

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It takes Romi one day to de-husk 250 coconuts. That means it will take him a whole month to de-husk all the coconuts.How Much is that Coconut?

Romi can sell the de-husked coconuts for 3,000 Rupiah, or 30 cents US each, to merchants at the wet market nearby.

If he sells 250 coconuts a month, he'll bring in 75,000 Rupiah or $75 US.

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Indonesians use them to make coconut milk and cooking oil. They even use the shell of the coconut to make bowls.

"The coconut is the most useful crop in Bintan," says Romi, who usually stops working at 5:00 pm every day. "No part of it is wasted."No waste

Coconut broom.

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Indonesians use the fiber from the coconut husks to make brooms.

These brooms are sold to hotels and resorts, as well as to housewives in the market nearby.

All that's left are the leaves and trunk of the cocount palm, which Indonesians use to construct walls, doors and roofs for their houses.

The sun is setting and it's time to go home...