The sugar industry in Peru

Peter F Klaren

doi:10.3989/revindias.2005.i233.375

Abstract

Since the early Colonial times sugar production has been a key sector in the Peruvian export economy. This article analyzes its evolution as from the beginning of its modern phase by mid 19th Century, its consolidation in the Northern coastal region, and its concentration in scale-economy plants. The prosperity of this type of production contributed to the formation of both an oligarchy which governed the country until 1968, and the populist party (APRA) and its electoral basis (the so-called «Aprista North»). In the sixties Velasco Alvarado’s military revolution nationalized the sugar industry, which underwent structural changes leading to a serious crisis in the eighties that has not been overcome up-todate.

Highlights

If mining has constituted the bedrock of Peru’s economy over the long sweep of its history, sugar growing has been the other great generator of Andean wealth
The demographic disaster, provoked by the sixteenth century conquest of Peru that caused the collapse of the native population, opened the way for the importation of African slaves and the rise of slavery, in the cultivation of sugar on the coast
There the combination of sugar and slavery created the great plantation system which became a hallmark in Peru, as it did in other parts of the Americas, if on a smaller scale than north coast Brazil or the Caribbean islands

Summary

Introduction

If mining (silver, copper, oil) has constituted the bedrock of Peru’s economy over the long sweep of its history, sugar growing has been the other great generator of Andean wealth.

Results

Conclusion