When cooperatives are talked about in Latin America, the gaze goes toward Nicaragua, particularly when it is about agricultural cooperatives. In Nicaragua agricultural cooperatives mostly means “coffee cooperatives” and “milk cooperatives”. And in talking about coffee cooperatives the reference is to the north and central part of the country where a good number of organizations – even though not all nor even the majority – are gathered together in CAFENICA. Its importance is growing due to the fact that the coffee cooperatives export close to 20% of the total coffee exported. What explains this leap of the cooperatives when 20 years ago they did not reach 2% of exports? Is this a sustainable leap for its members, first and second tier cooperatives? In this systematization a key factor becomes a little clearer, that the growing differentiation of coffee markets was responded to, more than by the private enterprises, by the cooperative organizations, supported by the fair trade organizations, a correspondence that in turn allowed them to reorganize the coffee chain.