By combining resources through a cooperative, smaller coffee growers are able to reach more people and more easily sell their coffee. For these farmers, collaborating in this manner allows them to have an easier way to roast and sell their coffee. Their primary responsibility simply lies in growing high quality coffee and transporting it to the cooperative. Coopedota (the cooperative in the community of Santa Maria de Dota) then sorts the beans, dries them, roasts them, and finally packages and sells them to consumers. In this way, the farmers can concentrate all of their resources on ensuring they are growing the highest quality of coffee. One potential disadvantage of this method is that the farmers don’t necessarily have a say in what happens to their beans once they are sold. However, losing this minor degree of independence is a small price to pay for all of the benefits the cooperative brings.

Without the cooperative in Santa Maria de Dota, there would likely be much less development in the area since the cooperative does a lot to support the community and bring the growers together. Since the community consists of a lot of the rural coffee growers, it might not have resembled the town it does today without the cooperative to bring everything together. Additionally, it would make it much more difficult for the farmers because they would have to deal with processing, packaging, and distributing the coffee themselves rather than having the broad resources of the cooperative. Café Privilegios provides support for both the farmers and the community by practicing social, economic, and environmental sustainability.