Bosque International

A privately
held company.

Bosque International is a privately held investment company. Our roots trace back to a coffee estate in Central America in 1985, and our affiliates have grown into owners of land, forests, coffee, and enduring businesses across the Americas.

A short history Coffee first. Everything since has grown from it.

Bosque International began in 1985 with coffee, but our roots in coffee reach much further back. They trace to the 1800s, when Guatemala set aside its old dye crops, indigo and cochineal, for coffee, and coffee became the country's principal export. They have run through the generations since, and the letter below, typed in San Miguel Petapa in 1923 on the letterhead of Soto Hermanos, is one small record of them: a contract for coffee to be bought across San Vicente, Los Humitos, and Llano de Ánimas, near Amatitlán, and paid in gold.

The company itself started as a cultivator in Central America, then became an exporter, and in time an integrated business spanning cultivation, roasting, export, and the retail distribution of premium Central American coffee. Coffee taught us how land behaves over decades, how prices move through cycles, and how much patience a good asset deserves.

That experience became the foundation of the company as it stands today: a diversified private investment firm that deploys its own permanent capital. We own real estate, reforestation and conservation land, coffee and other commodities, and stakes in private and publicly traded companies throughout the Americas.

We manage our own money and answer only to ourselves. No fund to wind down, and no calendar that forces a sale. Each holding is chosen by the people who will live with it, and it stays with us for as long as it continues to earn its place.

Established 1985.

Typed letter on Soto Hermanos letterhead, San Miguel Petapa, 9 August 1923, addressed to doña Fernanda S. de Díaz of Amatitlán and signed by Miguel Soto B.

Letter from Miguel Soto B. of Soto Hermanos, San Miguel Petapa, to doña Fernanda S. de Díaz of Amatitlán, 9 August 1923. From our archive.

Soto Hermanos
San Miguel Petapa, August 9, 1923
Señora doña Fernanda S. de Díaz
Amatitlán

My dear doña Fernanda:

I write to let you know that the deed don Vicente has just brought contains some errors, among them the date for the return of the money in gold, which we agreed would fall within three months counted from today, and the provision that the coffee be delivered in your city, which you will not be able to do, since you must buy it across several districts, whether San Vicente, Los Humitos, or Llano de Ánimas, and I will necessarily have to receive it from you in different places. I make this clarification to you, as I have already made it to don Vicente, so that we are in agreement and no differences arise later. Don Vicente wrote that the coffee will be settled one hundred at a time, and with that I agree.

I hope you will keep this letter; it will be what settles any doubts, should we have them. Until I have the pleasure of seeing you again, take care of yourself. I remain, as ever, your affectionate friend,

Miguel Soto B.
The original, in Spanish

San Miguel Petapa, 9 de agosto de 1923.

Señora doña Fernanda S. de Díaz, Amatitlán.

Muy apreciable doña Fernanda:

Me dirijo a Ud. para comunicarle que la escritura que acaba de traer don Vicente adolece de algunos errores, tales como la fecha de la devolución del dinero en oro que convenimos, que será dentro de tres meses contados desde la fecha, y que el café será entregado en esa ciudad, lo que Ud. no va a poder hacer así, por tener que comprarlo Ud. en varias zonas, sea la de San Vicente, Los Humitos o Llano de Ánimas, y necesariamente tengo que recibírselo en diferentes partes. Esta aclaración se la hago y se la he hecho a don Vicente para que estemos de acuerdo y que [no] haya más tarde diferencias. El café puso don Vicente que se le irá fijando de 100 en 100, en lo que estoy de acuerdo.

Esta carta espero la conserve; ella será la que nos saque de dudas en caso que las tengamos, y, mientras tengo el gusto de volverla a ver, cuídese y soy siempre su afectísimo amigo.

Miguel Soto B.

What we hold.

Five kinds of asset, chosen with the same care and kept on the same terms. We are indifferent to category and attentive to price, quality, and the decades ahead.

Land and real estate

Properties we develop or acquire in order to hold and improve across decades, in cities and in the countryside.

Forests and conservation

Reforestation and conservation land that restores what was lost and earns carbon credits as the canopy closes.

Coffee and commodities

Our origin. Premium Central American coffee from the field to the port, together with selected soft commodities.

Private companies

Direct, long term stakes in privately held businesses across the Americas, beside owners and managers we know well.

Public companies

Shares in publicly traded businesses anywhere in the world, chosen for their worth and kept through the noise of the market.

How we think.

Permanence. We are owners rather than traders. A holding remains with us while it keeps earning its place, and some will outlast the people who chose them. That expectation changes what we buy and the price we are willing to pay.

Independence. The money is our own. No fundraising, no reporting season, and no one to persuade before we act. This lets us be patient in ways that most investors cannot afford, and decisive when the moment is brief.

Origin. We came from the land and it still shapes our judgement. We prefer assets we can walk, businesses we can understand from the inside, and returns we can explain to a farmer.

Responsibility. A forest, an estate, and a company each carry people and places with them. We invest with that weight in mind, and we keep score in decades, not years.

Send us a note.

We consider opportunities across the Americas: a property, a tract of land, a coffee or commodity venture, or a privately owned business in search of a permanent partner. Describe it in a few lines and we will reply.