Today we took a two-hour bus ride to a region of Costa Rica known as Terrazú to visit a coffee producer known as Coopedota. Coopedota is unlike any of the producers we have previously visited because there is not one singular owner or family that controls all of the coffee bean production. Instead, the company is a cooperative, which means that the products are made from coffee beans of 900 different family growers. Each farmer participates as an owner of the company, in fact, each year Coopedota hosts a large assembly where all farmers come together to make big decisions regarding management and production. Coopedota works to satisfy multiple sustainable objectives such as the national carbon neutrality by 2021, as well as utilizing the government subsidized program known as, The Rainforest Alliance.                                                                                    

Coopedota presents many advantages and disadvantages as a cooperative. Coopedota very clearly advertises their benefits to their coffee bean growers in order to attract more participants. For example, they advertise that they pay in advance for the product, growers also have the support of many other farmers, as most growers are not usually responsible fro such a large yield of coffee beans. Coopedota explains how producing as one company saves the smaller firms from facing competition. Additionally, by joining the cooperative, individual growing families no longer have to worry about distributing their products to consumers, advertising for themselves, and competing against many other farmers whom are also in the cooperative. Some of the disadvantages that are assumed bust not illustrated by Coopedota executives may be that the unique taste of each farm is lost because they are all blended together rather than praised for their own distinct taste, some may see the democratic-representative type leadership as attractive to small firms, while the leadership of other stronger coffee producers may be masked by the committee of farmers’ overall opinion. The majority seems to always win when it comes to making big decisions for Coopedota seeing as though a committee of 900 growers is then represented by the opinions of fifteen people, of which, they have elected.                                                                                                                                                       

The community of Santa María de Dota would be severely different without the cooperative. 900 small coffee bean plantations would no longer rely on the cooperative to buy their product, transport it, and basically provide for them. Instead, most growers would be struggling to compete with each other, and in small family-run companies such as these, many growers have the potential to slip through the cracks because they find difficulty in managing all elements of their supply chain. Coopedota allows its participating farmers to focus on the growth of the crop, the primary step in the coffee supply chain; this allows the cost of production to be much less. Without the cooperative, the flow of money into Santa María de Dota would be far lower. Coopedota not only stands as a foundation for the community through its production of coffee beans, but Café Privilegios also provides future careers for many of the children who grow up there. For example, Carlos, our barista teacher explained to us how Coopedota has a plan with local schools, in which, they teach the children different skills and trades of the company, this allows students to pick up on a steady career upon graduation of high school.