Region: well suited to make clothes

Clothing and footwear production in Central America for exportation to the United States is on the upswing. One of the main reasons for growth in this sector is a shift in sourcing by American buyers away from China, which faces a combination of a strengthening currency and higher wages.

There is a change in the trend in U.S. imports of footwear and apparel from China, from upward to flat to downward, as manufacturing firms leave the country, said Mario Moreno, economist for The Journal of Commerce, last week. Central America, especially Honduras, is replacing

China as a producer of apparel and footwear for export. Nicaragua, where costs are in many cases even lower than in Honduras, is seeing new investments in this sector. The Indian subcontinent, mainly Bangladesh, is also increasing its output of clothing and footwear for export.

In the case of menswear, imports from Central America to the United States were up by 57% in the first quarter of this year, compared to 22% for India and Bangladesh, while imports from China fell by 1 percent.

Opportunities

• Clothing and footwear producers
• Free zones