Palo Blanco is a well-established company with a long tradition of hard work, dedication and excellence.
The story began 99 years ago, when Otto Bruderer, the first member of the Bruderer family, arrives in Guatemala from the Suisse region of Appenzell, where respect for human dignity, precision and moderation flows through their veins.
When Otto arrived in Guatemala, he immediately began to work as an accountant for farms in Colomba Costa Cuca, in the department of Quetzaltenango that were located near the border with Mexico, and which were managed by the Bank of Hamburg.
The way he treated other workers, the transparency in the way he managed the assets under his responsibility and his work performance, soon started to draw everybody´s attention.
Six years after Otto had been living and working for Guatemalan farms, Marcelle Jeanrenaud arrived in this country. She came from Glarus, Switzerland. They married in February 1928 and began living in Coatepeque, a neighboring municipality of Colomba, and known as a prosperous region for agriculture and trade.
They had three children; Frank Otto, Alexander and Carlos Ernesto, who inherited the knowledge and love for growing agricultural products. Coffee was the first crop the Bruderer family grew in Colomba, Costa Cuca.
A FAMILY TRADITION THAT CONTINUES
In the sixties, the Bruderer family acquired several farms in the south coast of Guatemala, which is the region with the most fertile lands of the country. With all these conditions in his favor, the family began growing soy, millet and cotton.
Years later, in the mid 90s, the Bruderer family saw an opportunity in growing bananas, a fruit with high demand in the US market and highly appreciated for its flavor and texture.
Over the years, Guatemala has become a country that produces excellent quality bananas and this opened the door for the Bruderer family to begin to export this fruit to the largest buyers worldwide. Afterwards, they also began growing and exporting plantains.
In addition to growing bananas in the south coast, in 2002 they began growing and exporting avocados from farms located in the municipalities of Amatitlán, Chimaltenango and Tecpán.
Today, Palo Blanco is led by the third generation of the Bruderer family and continues with the legacy of their grandparents distributing their products worldwide, offering fresh fruit, processed foods, and natural beverages, that have no preservatives and that are vacuumed-packed with the latest technology.
These 99 years of hard work from three generations guarantee that the fruit and foods of Palo Blanco are the best combination of Suisse and Guatemalan heritage.