From the summary of a report by the Central Bank of Honduras "Goods for processing and related activities 2014 and perspectives for 2015/2016"

Operating under the Free Zones regime companies that carry out processing activities, commonly known as maquila, showed a significant increase in 2014 (11.8% in the Gross Value Added, VAB1) because of a stable international environment influenced by strengthening demand mainly outside of the US market which showed economic growth of 2.4%, resulting in an increased demand for goods for domestic production (approximately 76.0% of the exports of the maquila from Honduras went to that country).

The maquila industry remains one of the main sources of employment in the domestic manufacturing industry, with a share of around 41.0% of total employment in this activity, generating about 125,000 jobs in 2014, with noteworthy activities being Manufacturing of Clothes and Apparel.

Read full report here.

More on this topic

Maquila: More production in Honduras

October 2018

Basically explained by the rebound in external demand, the Gross Production Value of the maquiladora industry in the country increased by 3.9% between 2016 and 2017.

According to the results of the annual survey 2017 directed to the companies of the Industry of Transformation Goods (Maquila) and Related Activities, the Gross Value of Production in the current values of the maquiladora industry increased in 3.9% inter-annually (-0.1% in 2016), basically explained by the rebound in external demand. On the other hand, foreign direct investment in maquila activities increased 21.3%, associated with greater capital contributions for the construction of new textile plants and the expansion of the harness industry, reported the Central Bank of Honduras BCH.

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Rebound of Honduran Maquila Companies

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This system, introduced in the textile fair Apparel Sourcing Show 2014, in Guatemala, unifies in a set sequence the "value" steps of the manufacturing process, completely eliminating "waste" steps resulting in higher productivity and resource optimization so that the number of operators needed to make a garment is only nine instead of fifty.