Summary:

- Leading university: Saint Mary's University (SMU)

- Local cooperative: Buliwao Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BMPC)

1. Context

Buliwao Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BMPC) found in Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya has been assisted by the Department of Agrarian Reform in strengthening the organization through trainings considering that the members are Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries and at present, they are evaluated by that government agency as Entrepreneurship ready (Level III). The cooperative offers rice trading, lending, bamboo stick production, and retailing. The main source of the cooperatives’ income is bamboo stick production considering that production can be done all year round and it is known for products like barbeque, camote que and other street foods unlike for farming that the farmer-members earn every four months.

At present, the supply of bamboo is still lower than the demand and the bamboo materials are insufficient. It takes 5 years to grow a bamboo before it can be used. The bamboo materials used for bamboo stick production come from Quezon and Diadi which are also municipalities in the province. The bamboo materials are bought at Php 200 per sack. Each household produce 100 to 200 bundles per day. Production of bamboo sticks are done manually using cutter and knife. One sack of bamboo can last for one week and it can produce 300 to 400 bundles for fishball sticks and 240 bundles for barbeque sticks. The bundles of bamboo sticks are sold at Php 2.50 for fishball, kikiam sticks etc., Php 3.00 for barbeque and isaw sticks, and Php 4.00 for bananaque sticks. The profit generated for the whole week is more than Php 600.

Currently, the individual farmers produce bamboo and then sell it to the cooperative then the members are the ones who produce the bamboo stick product. The bamboo stick product has wide distribution considering that it is delivered and sold to provinces particularly Nueva Vizcaya (Solano and Bambang), Quirino, Nueva Ecija, Ifugao, and Pangasinan and sometimes the buyers are the ones visiting them just to buy the bamboo sticks.

The bamboo stick production is done for 80% by women. They all work individually, there is no chainwork. The first cut the bamboo with a knife (machete), then they sharpen it with a little knife. They smooth them out with an old pair of jeans or another piece of fabric. They bundle all the raw sticks to pass them in a piece of plastic and roll them until the fine threads loosen. Once the stick are ready, the put 80 sticks in one bundel.

With regard to the rice trading, the cooperative suffered losses due to mismanagement but little by little they are recovering. In terms of lending services, there was a time that they extended loans to the multi-purpose members but some of them fail to pay their obligation.

The Department of Trade and Industry is a government agency that provides support to MSMEs and one of their functions is to monitor and evaluate the value chain activities of entrepreneurs and help to sustain it. The government agency conducted needs assessment on June to August of 2018, interventions were already made and one of which is on product development activities to help the cooperative maximize their bamboo raw materials to further propose other livelihood and income generating activities to the cooperative. Skills training also started in November 2018. There were attempts to develop products out of bamboo like lampshades, keychains, novelty items and handicraft products, however, they are not yet commercialized. The problem here is that, once the products are made, they have to find people who want to buy the products, they have to go to markets, and arrange transport.

2. Description of the cooperative

Buliwao Multi-Purpose Cooperative found in Purok 3, Buliwao, Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya started their operation way back 1989 with P 132,000 start-up capital having 20 to 30 members with more or less 300 members now. The cooperative is engaged in rice trading, lending, bamboo stick production, and retailing activities. But at this moment, they are especially engaged in bamboo stick production.

3. Challenge

The students could work on:

• assisting the cooperative in the development of innovative bamboo products and other related products to sustain their livelihood activities (i.e. utilization of bamboo scrap materials); and create a business plan to market them.
• assisting the members in the conduct of value chain studies then propose strategies to sustain the bamboo raw materials to avoid shortages and;
• proposing technologies to modernize or to automise/fasten the bamboo stick production considering that the members do it manually, considering the fact that the demand is higher that the supply.

4. Risk (Issues and Concerns)

• Weather disturbances like typhoons
• Bamboo materials are not maximized and wasted.
• Insufficiency of supply

5. Expectations of the Cooperative

The cooperatives are expected to be:

• assisted in terms of product development and marketing activities.
• assisted in proposing technologies to modernize the bamboo stick production.
• assisted in exploring other uses of bamboo as a basic raw material.

6. Contact Details

Gloria S. Bullawit

General Manager, Buliwao Multi-purpose Cooperative

0975 450 3895