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Saturday, September 12, 2026 · Guatemala CityQ7.6282 per US$+0.00%
ADVANCE GUATEMALA
Back to the researchIn research — sources cited, not yet in the verified archive

In depth

Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomás de Castilla for Atlantic-side operations

Dossier
Municipal intelligence for siting18-municipios.md
Domain
The country, department by departmentmunicipios
Room
Economy/economia
Audited
not audited

Izabal has the twin Caribbean ports: Puerto Barrios (private, bananas) and Santo Tomás de Castilla (state-owned). Bananas account for 88% of agricultural output in the municipality of Puerto Barrios; the subsoil holds nickel, chromium and copper, and there is heavy commercial and employment activity around both facilities (secondary source). Santo Tomás reported record cargo in 2025 (bananas, nickel, palm oil, fruit), a figure to be verified against EMPORNAC. Available regimes: ZOLIC (adjacent to Santo Tomás) and the Puerta del Istmo and Santander ZDEEPs (dossier 07 §3). Izabal's GDP per capita (Q54,310 in 2024, 5th in the country) confirms the economic density of its ports despite the 2023 contraction.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

Bananas in Puerto Barrios farm outputDeGuate (secundaria)
88%n.d.

Caveat

record cargo figure to be verified against EMPORNAC

Sources

Organizations named in the answer

  • EMPORNACThe official reference for verifying the cargo figures of Puerto Santo Tomás de CastillaPort
  • ZDEEP Puerta del IstmoFirst ZDEEP authorized by ZOLIC and enabled by SAT; a multi-user park 1.3 km from the border with Mexico and the site of Yazaki's start-up. Listed by ZOLIC as a ZDEEP in operation (card dated 30 de enero de 2026); location per ZOLIC: Carretera CA-2 al Pacífico kilómetro 249.5, Pajapita, San Marcos; declared area 202,551.38 m².Special economic development zone

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This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.