Korea’s biggest global manufacturing and export company Sae-A inaugurated its new cotton spinning mill in Costa Rica this week. With a current annual yarn production capacity of 9 million kilograms (19.8 million pounds), Sae-A expects the mill to yield roughly 30 million garments per year.The company officially began bulk production in the Cartago region SAE-A Spinning after a successful two-month pilot production run and has already announced expansion plans that will double the factory’s current capacity.“Sae-A Spinning will create tremendous opportunities for existing and new businesses across the region. Our commitment to the people ofCosta Rica is unwavering and we look forward to continued growth in the coming months and years,” Sae-A chairman Woong-Ki Kim said.In keeping with Costa Rica’s record of carbon neutrality, the spinning mill has a program in place to offset emissions.With this latest yarn spinning addition, which adds to Sae-A’s existing fabric knitting and dyeing capabilities, the company has now achieved near complete vertical integration of the garment production process—from design to spinning, knitting, dyeing, apparel manufacturing and supply chain management.Sae-A said it is looking to solidify its presence in the CAFTA region (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic) and further strengthen its network of “environmentally sound and compliant facilities” to quickly react to changes in the regulatory environment.When operating at full capacity, the new mill will be able to achieve more than 20 million kilograms (44 million pounds) of yarn production.As part of the CAFTA-DR, qualifying yarns and fabrics can move between the beneficiary countries and the United States duty free. As of February 2015, Costa Rica exported $78 million worth of apparel and textiles, a 25 percent decline over the same period the prior year, according to data from the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA).Tara Donaldson, Sourcing Journal Online