JEANS IN COLOMBIA

Colombia is a well known country for jeans manufacturers. Historically the country had a strong textile base and with cotton production. In recent decades cotton production has been reduced and imports of fabric increased significantly.

Main Jeans production areas for export and domestic market is located near Medellin city. Medellin enjoys of a good fashion and clothing textile tradition since many years.

There are companies involve in full pack service. US brands such as Levis, Gap, Tommy, American Eagle, Ralph Lauren, Macys, Calvin Klein, do produce in Colombia. Fabrics are mainly imported from US with no duties and exported back to US with a finished product. Colombia has specialized in basic products as well as non basic products for jeans.

There are mainly three big companies involved in jeans manufacturing in Medellin area; one is CI jeans,Globo and Expofaro. They all companies do produce mainly for US market.




Denim Review  C.I. Jeans S.A. sells 85 percent of the jeans it produces to such U.S. brands as Levi's® and Polo Ralph Lauren, and 15 percent to customers in South and Central America and the local market. The Medellín-based manufacturer employs 3,000 workers and produces 150,000 units per week. Among the company's denim fabric suppliers are American Denimatrix and Medellín-based Fabricato S.A.

C.I. Jeans is an industry leader in environmental and social responsibility. "All our workers get the right salary, are paid on time and receive all required benefits," said Director Andres Berdugo Gómez, stressing the importance of transparency. "We serve the world. We must comply in all legal respects and believe all should be on a level playing field."

Asked about what CTPA means for his company's business with the U.S. market, Berdugo said: "I'm pretty confident that business with the U.S. will increase. Now that we have a long-term ATPDEA extension [until July 2013], and once we finalize everything with CTPA, we will get the results. All our customers know we have a very reliable operation with competitive prices, they will receive the right product at the right time, and they have someone they can talk to who will understand their needs in terms of product price and place."

And, with CTPA expected to go into force sometime this year, textile decision-makers in both Colombia and the United States look to be ready to sieze those opportunities.

Workforce in Colombia is well trained and professaional. Although wages are not the lowest in the region, it is a highly productive working environment and with good capital equipment investments done in those companies. These companies use the latest technological advances in their stiching and finishing plants, including laser equipment, automatic laundry equipment, automatic spraying robots, grinding equipment, etc.

The challenge of Colombia is to further educate and specialize future generations towards this market niche. Colombia has a DNA for fashion business and jeans are a top garment priority for colombian consumers.
Per capita income is aroud 8000 USD a year and population is around 46 million. Inflation is around 2% and the central bank is controlling quite effectively. It is a country with a good water supply which is a commodity very important in the jeans manufacturing process.

In Colombia jeans consumption is higher in men than women by 40%. The working class wears jeans to work and employees in an office setting increased their use of jeans on casual work days. Jeans products were the most preferred trouser type amongst young men in 2011. Women, on the other hand, had other options such as casual trousers or leggings.

After depressed spending in 2008 and 2009, consumer confidence began to return to Colombia in 2010. This not only helped volumes sales to remain steady in 2010 after a 4% decline in 2009, but also encouraged a slight shift away from economy jeans to more expensive standard jeans. Standard jeans improved its share of value sales from 35% to 36% in 2010, while the share held by economy jeans fell from 24% to 22% in the same period.

Clothing styles are becoming more casual in Colombia, a boon for domestic demand for women’s jeans, which experienced 1% volume growth in 2010. As the Asociación Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia (ANDI) notes, there is a marked trend toward more casual dress in Colombia, and jeans are an important factor in this. ANDI and other trade sources find that young women are more likely to wear jeans than older women, as younger women tend to be more open to newer trends and find casual dress more...



Colombia geograhical location is strategic due to access to two oceans. It is the only country in South America that has access to Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This makes exports to western USA and East USA more easy, not to mention export to Asia and Europe. Colombia is the third country in Latin America with more foreign investment. Recent improvements in legislation and overall security around the country has contribute to a prosper growth environment. Colombia also has signed a free trade agreement with USA, European Union, and some countries in Asia like South Korea.

Most of export based manufacturers in Colombia do have ISO certifications.

There are mainly two fabric mills in Colombia, Coltejer and Fabricato. Please see the following link for textile briefing of the whole textile industry in Colombia.
http://www.colombiatrade.com.co/sites/default/files/Directorio_magic2012.pdf


Colombia's clothing and textile industry is one of the largest and most experienced in Latin America, especially with the application of technology in production processes. A focus has been placed on greater innovation and specialization, particularly through high-quality needlework, improve efficiency and speed in production as well as product delivery processes and quality certifications (ISO, BASC, WRAP).
Being one of the most important and dynamic of the Colombian economy sectors, includes 450 textile and 10.000 apparel manufacturers, most are small factories, as 50% have between 20 to 60 sewing machines. In 2011, the textile and apparel industries contributed 1.4 percent of Colombia's gross do-mestic product (GDP) and 10.7 percent of its manufacturing GDP. These industries also employ 20 percent of the country's workforce, including more than 130.000 direct and 200.000 indirect employees and represents 5% of the total exports in addition to 21% of the manufacturing workforce.
The most important products in the last five years have been jeans for men and boys, cotton trousers for women and girls, and bras. These three products represented 27.5% of the total exports in 2011.
The country exports only 15% of its textiles and is currently a net importer in this area; however it is a net exporter of apparel, with 57% of Colombian-produced clothing sold to the international market.


Colombia produces a lot of cotton apparel, in particular denim and knitwear. The country grows short and medium staple cotton, but it does not produce enough cotton internally to meet the demand of its apparel industry, so it has a growing trend in importing textile products and cotton fibers, which indi-cates investment opportunities in this industry.
The access to markets, the domestic market, the industry track record, and the legal incentives and special tax regimes are some of the main reasons why Colombia is an attractive place to develop pro-duction projects in the Textile & Apparel Industry.

The country is the third largest producer of intimate apparel, manufactures the world’s leading brand names in sportswear and jeans, the production plants and wash processes include the highest quality equipment, and its garments are known across the globe.


Colombia also enjoys of a big market for denim jeans and overall fashion. Many local jeans brands such as Kenzo Jeans, Jeans and Jackets, Studio F, Pronto, Manpower, AC, Stopjeans,  etc are present all over the country.