The sugar industry in Peru

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 19 th 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.