Compared to a traditional company cooperatives can offer many advantages as well disadvantages to those involved. Cooperatives allow small coffee farms to pool their resources and information together to increase their power in the coffee market. An advantage a cooperative has over a traditional company is that small coffee farms have more stability since they can always sell their product to the cooperative and don’t need to have direct relationships with clients down the supply chain. These small coffee farmers also have the ability to sell to larger markets through the cooperative since they can reach large scale coffee roasters such as Pete’s Coffee in the United States that wouldn’t do business with them otherwise. Additionally, these small coffee farmers can benefit from the shared materials, resources and information that the cooperative has to offer which can allow them to save money and have higher coffee yields. Although the advantages are enticing there are some small disadvantages for farmers involved in a cooperative. For example, the individual farmers can’t set the price for their own coffee the cooperative dictates how much money the farmers make. Also, farmers don’t get the chance to have their own brand since their coffee is combined with coffee from other small farms and all considered one brand. Even though there are some negatives to joining a cooperative small coffee farmers have a lot more to gain than they have to lose from participating in a cooperative.

The community of Santa Maria de Dota would be drastically different if it weren’t for the Coopedota cooperative. Without the cooperative it is likely that the area would be able to sustain 900 individual coffee farms all selling their own products. There would be way too much competition and not enough resources for all of the farms to survive in the area. Without the cooperative it is likely that many of the smaller farms would be bought out by large coffee plantations and the area would look more like Britt or Doka’s plantations. Also, the environment might suffer from having 900 different farmers in the area all with their own power and water consumption needs. It would be much harder to control the environmental footprint of 900 separate companies rather than just one. If there was no cooperative it’s likely that the coffee farms in the area would not be carbon neutral and they might not all be part of the rainforest alliance, but when they work together in a collective they can be. It’s clear that Santa Maria de Dota would be incredibly different if it wasn’t for the Coopedota cooperative.

 Café Privilegios is particulary important to the Santa Maria de Dota community because it provides jobs to local Ticos and it brings tourists into the area. Café Privilegios creates jobs in the area by employing many baristas and other locals to work in their coffee shop. Café Privilegios also has a partnership with the local schools to educate the students about all things coffee from kindergarten through high school. This gives students the opportunity to give back to their community and have knowledge about the local economy around them. In addition, Café Privelegios and Coopedota brings a lot of tourists into the Santa Maria de Dota area. This allows local entrepreneurs to open other businesses related to tourism such as restaurants and hotels. Overall Coopedota is the centerpiece of Santa Maria de Dota’s economy and Café Privilegios is the gateway between the community and the cooperative.