Fast-tracking the Development of the Mandarin Industry of Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines: The Case of the Malabing Valley Multipurpose Cooperative

Abstract

Nueva Vizcaya is one of the most prolific mandarin-producing provinces in the Philippines. However, it hasn’t developed to international standards, hence the need for government intervention. The Aquino administration came up with the Philippines Rural Development Project (PRDP), a project to fast-track the development of certain industries and commodities, and mandarin was selected for Nueva Vizcaya. To identify priority areas that need intervention, the value chain analysis (VCA) for mandarin in Nueva Vizcaya was conducted. It was found that along the value chain for mandarin, one cooperative stood out, the Malabing Valley Multipurpose Cooperative (MVMPC). The cooperative was purposely organized to support the mandarin industry. VCA found that MVMPC played a major role from input provision such as seedlings, chemical inputs, fertilizers, to marketing of mandarin. One of the recommendations of the VCA was the formation of clusters to produce uniform quality fruits acceptable by consumers and another was the identification of an organization that will carry out the recommendations. MVMPC was selected based on certain criteria. Hence, MVMPC became the proponent group for two enterprises that the provincial government of Nueva Vizcaya envisioned to have. The enterprises are mandarin seedling production and mandarin marketing enterprise. The mandarin seedling production will provide quality planting material while the marketing enterprise will market fresh mandarins bought from production clusters. This proposal amounts to PhP19,487,869, which was submitted to the World Bank for funding.