'Italy can play a key role in Venezuela's development'

'We will certainly have to wait for a period necessary to have a clearer and more defined picture of the country's reality in the political and social security spheres, as well as a new legislative framework that will ensure the necessary conditions to protect the investments and interests of Italian companies wishing to operate in Venezuela and to take part in the country's infrastructure reconstruction processes, but I am convinced that Italy can play a key role in Venezuela's economic development.

For Alvaro Peressutti, president of the Italian-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce, the events of last 3 January, with the fall of the Maduro government, have radically changed the country's political, social and economic balance, generating 'a movement and expectations of immense proportions' that could open up interesting business opportunities for Italian companies too. 'It is not yet possible to clearly define and understand what measures will be taken by the Venezuelan government and the US administration to ensure a transitional and radical process that will have to lead to a new society, fairer in terms of civil rights, more democratic at a social level, and more open at an economic level,' Peressutti points out.

However, Venezuela is a country that the Italian System can look at with interest, even though today the interchange between Rome and Caracas is limited: according to data provided by the Italian-Venezuelan Chamber itself (which is part of Assocamerestero, the association that represents 86 chambers of commerce present in 63 countries), Italian exports to Venezuela, after three years of constant growth, fell by 32.9% in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, dropping from 137 million euros to 92 million.

In the same period, sales from Venezuela to Italy consolidated further, reaching EUR 222 million. We mainly export machinery, food and chemicals, and import mainly crude oil (68.6% of the total in 2024) and steel products.

But the new political scenario could favour trade and bring it back to the important values recorded in 2012, when Italian exports exceeded one billion euros, thanks also to Venezuela's possible entry into Mercosur, with which the European Union has just reached a historic trade agreement. 'Venezuela entered the Mercado Comun del Sur Mercosur in 2012, but was suspended in 2016 for non-compliance with democratic rules,' Peressutti explains. 'With the re-establishment of the necessary conditions, envisaged by Mercosur's statutory regulations, Venezuela will be able to fully re-enter the regional bloc, which is fundamental for its social and economic integration with the other countries in the area.