A cooperative has advantages to a traditional company because all of the additional insight the cooperative has from each of the separate coffee farmers. Also in the event that there is an issue with some of the farmers then the cooperative will not completely fail because there are other separate farmers that can help the cooperative. For example if one of the farmer’s plants are affected by Broka, the other farmers can make up for the loss of the plants affected by Broka. The cooperative can also be cheaper for the farmers to participate in because the cooperative can sell to many more places than the farmer could do on his own.

Some of the disadvantages of a cooperative is that the cooperative can be hard to organize and communicate with all of the coffee farmers. In addition, Coopedota pre pays their farmers a certain percent of the anticipated yield. Therefore, if the yield is poor then the cooperative could be losing money. Also the cooperative is not advantageous for the farmers participating in it because they do not have a differentiated brand so they do not make as much as the could if they had a differentiated brand.

The community of Santa María would not be as close of a community without the cooperative. The community would have fewer jobs to offer because the cooperative opens up opportunities that otherwise would not exist. Café Privilegios is important in particular because it has partnered with a high school to educate students about coffee and being a barista. This partnership can further open up opportunities for those that participate in it outside of Café Privilegios, in locations such as Starbucks. Having the barista and coffee education differentiates the workers which could potential earn them higher wages than their counterparts without an education.