The economy

Early in the 21st century agriculture contributed little more than one-tenth of the gross domestic product (GDP) but still employed the biggest slice (about two-fifths) of the labor force. Two U.S. corporations—Chiquita (formerly United Fruit Company and United Brands) and Dole (formerly Standard Fruit and Steamship Company and Castle & Cooke)—dominated the country’s economy and held a disproportionate amount of the country’s agricultural land to produce the banana crop. In fact, in 2020 Chiquita owned about 8,600 acres (3,500 hectares) of Honduran land and employed about 4,000 employees.

Forests cover a substantial portion of Honduras’s land area, with recent data indicating that just over half the country remains forested. These ecosystems include moist broadleaf forests, mangroves, and coniferous forests that support high biodiversity and important ecological functions. Despite this extensive coverage, deforestation continues to be a significant concern, with satellite data documenting ongoing tree cover loss driven by agricultural expansion, cattle grazing, illegal logging, and other land-use pressures, particularly in remote regions where state oversight is limited. Although Honduras has established forest management and conservation policies and participates in international forest programs, challenges in monitoring and enforcement have limited their effectiveness.

Fishing is a small but developing industry, carried on mainly off the Caribbean coast. Shrimp and lobster are the most important parts of the catch, the largest portion of which is shipped to the United States.

Industry

Manufacturing accounts for a modest share of Honduras’s gross domestic product compared with the service sector, but remains important for export earnings and urban employment. Industrial activity is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises and by export-oriented manufacturing, much of which focuses on labor-intensive assembly operations that rely heavily on imported inputs. Since the late 20th century, foreign-owned maquiladoras (duty-free assembly plants)—concentrating primarily on textiles and apparel—have played a central role in the sector. These facilities have employed large numbers of workers and are concentrated chiefly in the Sula Valley, particularly in San Pedro Sula and Choloma.

The expansion of export-oriented manufacturing has been closely linked to preferential trade arrangements with the United States and regional partners. Manufactured and processed goods include food and beverages, textiles and clothing, chemicals, lumber, and paper products, while the production of capital goods and heavy industrial inputs remains limited. Although manufacturing contributes significantly to export earnings, the sector continues to face challenges related to infrastructure, energy reliability, technological capacity, and integration into higher value-added stages of production.

Mineral resources are limited but include silver, gold, lead, zinc, antimony, iron, mercury, and copper. From the 19th to the mid-20th century, the economy was largely dependent upon the production of silver and gold, particularly from El Mochito mine, which was the largest in Central America. Mining accounts for a tiny percentage of the GDP, with zinc the leading mineral export.

Transportation

All Honduran ports are operated by the National Port Authority. The major ports in the country are Puerto Cortés, Puerto Tela, Puerto de San Lorenzo, Puerto de La Ceiba, and Puerto Castilla. There are also smaller ports such as Puerto Roatán, Puerto Lempira, and Amapala.

Air transportation supplements the road network and is particularly important in a country characterized by mountainous terrain. The Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport at San Pedro Sula is the country’s largest and busiest airport. International service for the capital region shifted in 2021 from the constrained Toncontín Airport in Tegucigalpa to the newly constructed Palmerola International Airport near Comayagua, some 40 miles (60 km) northwest of the capital. Juan Manuel Gálvez Airport in Roatán also serves as an important gateway, particularly for tourism. Smaller regional airfields provide connections to remote areas of the country.

Honduras’s transportation network remains heavily oriented toward roads, which carry the bulk of both freight and passenger traffic because of the country’s mountainous terrain and limited rail infrastructure. Honduras has a road network of about 9,000 miles (approximately 14,500 km), with primary highways linking major cities and facilitating domestic and regional commerce. The central highway system includes the CA-5, which connects San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, and intermediate urban centers, and the Pan-American routes that link Honduras with neighboring countries. Continued investments, such as the Honduras Resilient Road Program and World Bank-supported connectivity projects, aim to expand and improve key corridors to enhance the ease of travel and support economic development.