Page 57 - New Cloth Market November 2022 Digital Edition

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PAGES

ment of Commerce, Honduras is the Raw Material Imports for the Honduran Apparel Industry
leading exporter of maquila products
to the United States. These are mainly
T-shirts, sweatshirts, and cotton shirts.
In 2020, the industry produced US$1.2
billion, of which US$2.3 billion (70.1%)
was exported to the United States
(US), according to the Banco Central
de Honduras (Central Bank of Hondu-
ras–BCH in Spanish). Honduras is the
main importer of yarn from the US.
According to 2020 data, apparel ex-
ports in Honduras account for 31.7%
of total exports and textile exports
account for 1.77%, while in Guatema-
la they account for 13.14% of total
exports.
Honduras' export figures are due to
factors associated with the main com-
petitive advantages of the Honduran
industry. They include its geographical
proximity to the main market, the US,
and the opportunity provided by the
reorganization of value chains in the
context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This gives an advantage to the Hon-
duran textile industry, which can ben-
efit fully from its already solid relation-
ship with the US.
Another advantage for Honduras is the
reduced cost and delivery time of prod-
ucts, due to its proximity to the US
market. This allows products manufac-
tured in Honduras to reach US stores
in 12 weeks, in contrast to the 4
months it takes for orders from China
and Pakistan. Honduras also offers
competitive wages and on-time deliv-
ery, vertical integration, and free trade
agreements with the US, Canada, the
European Union, and the Central Amer-
ican region.

Honduras has an integrated export
cluster for finished garments destined
for the US, as well as for textile inputs
for garment manufacturing, destined for
countries in the region.
Raw Material Imports for the Hon-
duran Apparel Industry

The following analysis shows the coun-
tries supplying cotton fiber, cotton
yarn, synthetic fiber yarn, and knitted
and woven fabrics from 2017 to 2021

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