Malampa Agrarian Reform Cooperative

The story of the vinegar business of Malampa MPCInc has come a long way since its start in 2005. During the conduct of the Enterprise Development Course for Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) cooperatives, vinegar production was identified as an additional Income Generating Project (IGP) of the cooperative. Before the vinegar production business cooperative was established, some farmer-members are already producing vinegar in very limited volumes and generally of lower quality for their own personal consumption. They were apprehensive then that they will not be able to market their extra produce. Through a dialogue among the cooperative officers and barangay officials with member of DAR-I.Norte who conducted annual ARC Level of Development Assessment (ALDA) on concerns and issues of their vinegar business were discussed. In collaboration with DTI-I. Norte, DAR assisted and encouraged them to go on with the vinegar business on large scale. After considering the market potential of the iloco vinegar, it was then decided that the people, spearheaded by the cooperative, will venture into a vinegar making project. The cooperative now acts as the marketing arm of the produce of the member-farmers engaged in the manufacture of vinegar. The DAR and DTI, together with all stakeholders came up with a marketing plan to support the implementation of the project. The assistance of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) were also sought in order to address the technical aspects of the proposed project. The DOST and the DA proposed for the purchase of a mechanized sugar cane crusher, which was later on provided by the Bacarra LGU. They are also now using a new sugarcane variety as proposed by DA whose yield doubles that of the varieties usually used in order to increase the production level.