Fernando Bolaños Menéndez descends from a long line of farmers. Both his parents and grandparents worked in the field of agriculture. He was orphaned at the tender age of 13, and so began to run a small dairy farm on his own.

At the age of twenty, Fernando Bolaños Menéndez took it upon himself to plant cotton on the south coast of Guatemala and he now farms more than 3.500 acres of cotton.

The price of cotton dropped on the international market and the sugarcane was now the opportunity to start a new business. Don Fernando took advantage of this to start a sugar mill, incorporating this innovation in the industrial processing of sugar. Unfortunately, this undertaking is not successful and Don Fernando is forced to liquidate his business. His next agricultural venture is to buy a banana plantation in a bank shot.

Fernando Bolaños again finds himself in a position where he is forced to sell his banana plantation, but his passion for the tropical fruit business drives him to continue in this business with a smaller farm that grows and prospers in the following years.

Don Fernando sells his banana operations to Chiquita Brands International and then together with his sons, Gustavo and Fernando, starts to develop another banana plantation.

Agroamerica makes a joint venture with Fyffes PLC, a European company quoted in the London and Dublin and a leader in the fruit and vegetable distribution market in Europe, for the expansion of its banana plantations to 3,000 hectares.

Fyffes sells its participation in the company to the Dole Food Company, a world leader in the production and distribution of fruit and vegetables, and they start developing the first banana plantations in the South Coast.

Following the damage caused by hurricane Mitch, Agroamerica decides to abandon most of its banana plantations in Guatemala and change its focus to their African palm plantations. Thus began their venture in the production and processing of palm oil.

Agroamerica buys a small but successful pineapple plantation in Costa Rica that has demonstrated consistent growth over the past few years.

Agroamerica consolidates its position as one of the biggest and most efficient pineapple and banana producers in the world, as well as an efficient producer of African palm oil in the region.

Agroamerica consolidates its position as one of the biggest and most efficient pineapple and banana producers in the world, as well as an efficient producer of African palm oil in the region.