Mendoza’s business community has begun incorporating mining into the structural discussion on how to recover export scale and relative weight within the Argentine economy. This position appears in the latest report from the Mendoza Business Council (CEM), a document focused on the evolution of provincial exports between 2015 and 2025 that highlights the need to add new sectors capable of contributing volume, diversification, and dynamism to the province’s export matrix.
By Panorama Minero
This development is particularly significant because it does not originate from the mining sector itself or from a technical document focused specifically on extractive development, but rather from a broad economic analysis prepared by one of Mendoza’s leading business organizations. In the report, the CEM argues that traditional activities such as viticulture, agribusiness, and tourism should be complemented by new strategic sectors, including “sustainable mining, energy, logistics, and knowledge-based services.”
Mendoza Loses Relative Weight in Exports
The report presents a diagnosis marked by Mendoza’s declining relative importance within Argentina’s export framework.
In 2025, the province exported goods worth US$1.538 billion, a 4% decrease compared to 2024 and only 6% above the average for the 2015–2024 period. In real terms, after adjusting for international inflation, Mendoza’s 2025 exports were 15% lower than in 2015 and 12% below the average of the last decade.
The report also notes that Mendoza accounted for only 1.8% of national exports in 2025, below the decade average of 2.2%.
At the same time, the CEM highlights how other regions associated with energy and mining industries have increased their export participation in recent years. According to the document, the Pampas Region and Patagonia accounted for most of Argentina’s export growth over the last decade, driven by “agro-industrial, energy, and mining complexes.”
Within this framework, Patagonia stands out as one of the most notable cases. According to the report, a region that represents approximately 6% of the national population accounted for nearly 27% of Argentina’s export growth between 2015 and 2025. The document also highlights Neuquén’s rise to fourth place among Argentina’s exporting provinces, climbing 15 positions since 2015, driven by hydrocarbon exports.
The analysis also includes international comparisons. The CEM points out that Argentina’s export performance during the last decade lagged behind the Latin American average and specifically cites Peru, whose export growth was “leveraged by mining exports.”
According to the report, Peru increased its exports by 147% between 2015 and 2025, while Chile recorded growth of 72% over the same period. Argentina, by comparison, grew by 53%.
Mining and Large-Scale Sectors in the Export Agenda
The difference is also reflected in exports per capita. In 2025, Chile recorded exports of US$5,388 per capita, Mexico US$5,039, and Peru US$2,392. Argentina reached US$1,878 per capita, while Mendoza registered only US$751 per inhabitant.
The report emphasizes that Mendoza’s exports per capita have averaged less than half the national level over the last decade.
Among Argentina’s leading export complexes, the report also includes direct references to mining sectors. The gold and silver complex ranked fifth nationally in 2025, generating US$4.886 billion in exports and posting annual growth of 28%.
Meanwhile, lithium ranked sixteenth among Argentina’s export sectors, with foreign sales totaling US$932 million and year-over-year growth of 42%.
In its conclusion, the Mendoza Business Council argues that the province faces the challenge of recovering export participation and creating new conditions for competitiveness. Within that framework, the report states that seizing future opportunities will require progress in infrastructure, logistics, access to financing, and the promotion of new export-oriented sectors capable of providing greater scale and economic resilience.
