Record Exports, Weak Factories: How Peru’s Mining Miracle Hides Its Risks
Key Points
- Peru is breaking export records thanks to copper, gold and fast-growing farm exports.
- The boom is dominated by big mines, while jewelry, wood and other job-rich sectors are shrinking.
- The country’s future will depend on stable, market-friendly rules rather than short-term political experiments.
For outsiders, the trade numbers look like a simple success story. Between January and October 2025, the country sold roughly 71.9 billion dollars’ worth of goods to the world, about 20 percent more than a year before – the highest figure ever for that period. On paper, Peru is an export powerhouse.
Most of that money still comes from the ground. Traditional exports such as copper, gold, fishmeal and raw farm goods brought in more than 53 billion dollars in the first ten months, almost three quarters of the total.
Mining alone generated around 46 billion dollars as global demand for copper and gold stayed strong. China now buys close to half of everything Peru ships abroad.
Alongside that, a quieter transformation is under way. Non-traditional exports – processed foods, manufactured products and higher-value goods – reached nearly 19 billion dollars, growing faster than the economy as a whole.
Agro-industry is the star: Peru has become a major supplier of blueberries, avocados, grapes and cocoa to supermarkets in the United States, Europe and Asia. Blueberry exports alone are worth more than 1.8 billion dollars.
Yet behind the boom, the stress points are clear. Five subsectors are shrinking: jewelry, wood products, non-metallic mining, hydrocarbons and a mixed “various” category.
These are the activities that employ many small and mid-sized firms. They are also the first to suffer when taxes, rules and labor costs rise, or when trade policy becomes a tool for signalling rather than competitiveness.
That is the story behind the story. Peru has thousands of exporters shipping more than four thousand products to 168 markets, and total sales could reach about 86.7 billion dollars this year.
The real test is whether the country chooses predictable, investment-friendly policies that let factories and farms grow – or drifts toward loud, state-centred experiments that leave the mining boom doing all the heavy lifting.
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