Since market liberalization occurred in Mexico, the Mexican government implemented several economic policies to comply with the rules and regulations imposed by international organizations. Multinational corporations vertically integrated in the value chain have become principal actors in international coffee markets. Within markets, cooperatives that received Fair Trade payment for their coffee production attributed their increasing incomes to the following factors. 1) Farmers received more training to improve record keeping; 2) Cooperative leaders are more familiar with procedures and paperwork to obtain certification and re-certification annually on time; and 3) Investments in infrastructure, training, and professionals hired have led to an increase in the quality of their production. Chapter 3 examined how access to training programs, governance and infrastructure investments contribute to marketing and production/processing innovations in SCCs. Main contributions included improving organizational skills, involving youth and professionals, improving decision-making processes (participation of all members in the SCC), promoting diversification (production and marketing strategies), and investing scarce resources in infrastructure (primarily processing equipment). By providing training to leaders and members of the cooperatives, many of these changes are advanced. Chapter 4, which examines innovations in production members of SCCs have adopted as a result of shifting from conventional to Fair Trade and organic production.