This article is a product of the research project “The impact of management models on the development of agricultural cooperatives in northeast Misiones”, conducted in Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Argentina, between 2010 and 2012. It was based on information from documentary and empirical sources from surveys and interviews conducted with 80% of the population under study, founding members of agricultural cooperatives, and key informants. The aim was to identify the critical factors that hindered growth and, based on these, determine the key areas for reactivating and generating sustainable develop- ment in these cooperatives. It was corroborated that 90% of the cooperatives surveyed were in a state of “invisibility”, with a high level of economic inactivity caused by the circumstances they were created in, and the absence of a common project.