Today we visited Coope Dota which focuses on the production of coffee. Coope Dota differs from other plantations we have visited as they work under a cooperative. A cooperative does not grow their own coffee, but instead collects their coffee from 900 small family farms within the community. Dota requires at least 1 hector of land and then they will ensure that the coffee is up to their standard. After these steps are completed a contract is made and then for the rest of the contract time the farm will send their coffee to Dota. Once Dota collects all of the coffee from the small farms they will start the milling and drying process in their factory. Once completed then the coffee is sold to larger roasting companies that will then sell the coffee as their own.

The use of a cooperative has its own unique advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional plantation and milling companies. Firstly, a big advantage is the company does not have to find employees to pick coffee since the smaller farms will handle this. As well the company does not have to buy hundreds of acres of land since these 900 farms each will own their own plots of land. Therefore, Dota is able to produce large quantities of coffee without worrying about the logistics of the hiring and housing of employees and buying land. The disadvantages that Dota faces working as a cooperative is having a lot less decision making power since decisions must be unanimous with the 900 farms. Other plantations can make any decisions they would like without any issues, but Dota has to make sure every single farm is happy and agrees with the decisions.

Without Dota the community of Santa Maria would nearly fall apart. Having a coffee plantation is not everything one would need to be a successful coffee farmer. Having people to sell to is one of the most difficult aspects of growing coffee, especially as a small farm with only a hector of land. Dota bridges all of these small family farms to be successful since nearly none of the farms produce enough coffee to sell on their own and they would need to invest so much money into milling that it would end up turning a loss for the small farms. Therefore, without Coope Dota the entire economy of the community would fall apart as many people would lose their way to make a living.