What is Guatemala's full-package apparel model and what investment is going into spinning and fabrics?

According to Karin De León, investment and promotion director of VESTEX, interviewed by FASH455 / Sheng Lu (University of Delaware, posted 30 August 2025),… Guatemala offers a highly integrated apparel cluster covering every stage of the supply chain, spinning, fabric weaving, garment manufacturing,… printing, finishing and packaging;… this full-package model allows greater flexibility and product diversity and raises the added value of garments. In the same interview she says that since the 2020 pandemic the country has attracted new foreign investment and supported the expansion of companies already established there, particularly in the spinning industry, whose installed capacity is focused primarily on cotton, although blends are also produced, and that shipments reach Miami in as little as three days. According to Prensa Libre (Jul 23, 2022), with data received by Vestex, investment in the country for the sector was estimated to be able to reach US$350 million in 2022; Alejandro Ceballos, vice-president of Vestex, explained that these are investments in machinery, equipment and expansions of plants already operating in the country (reinvestments) and that all these investments went to textiles rather than garment assembly, among other factors because the cost for garment factories in Guatemala is higher than in neighbouring countries and Guatemala's minimum wage is among the highest in the area. Separately, the article mentions new plants, such as the one announced by MT Textil, S. A. (Grupo Imperial) for US$80 million. In Honduras, press from 2017 and 2018 reported the construction of a synthetic yarn plant by United Textiles of America (Unitexa) in Choloma, Cortés, which according to Textiles Panamericanos would have, once opened, a production capacity of more than 25,000 tons per year; its director, Juan Carlos Zighelboim, told La Prensa of Honduras that the plant will produce raw material that 'will stay in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala' and that large sportswear brands such as Adidas and Nike can buy it.