Mendrisiotto, a global gold hub: 218 billion francs in trade in 2025

Ticino closed 2025 with a record in the precious metals trade, driven by the refineries of the Mendrisiotto. According to final data from the cantonal statistical office (Ustat) and the Federal Customs Administration, metal imports exceeded 100 billion francs for the first time, while exports reached 118.2 billion, for a combined flow of over 218 billion. Exports alone are equivalent to almost thirty times the canton's tax revenue and exceed the Confederation's total annual expenditure.

These volumes are explained by the gold refineries based in Mendrisio, Balerna and Castel San Pietro, which together with refineries in French-speaking Switzerland form the world's leading refining hub. Ticino alone generates almost 70% of Swiss metal exports and more than half of imports. The flow includes both raw or recycled gold, known as doré, from mines, and "Good Delivery" bars arriving mainly from London to be processed and resold, chiefly to China and the United States.

Much of the increase recorded in 2025 does not reflect a larger quantity of gold processed, but the rise in the metal's price, which went from about 75,000 to about 110,000 francs per kilo over the course of the year. Since customs statistics record values in current francs, every price increase is automatically reflected in higher figures, even with unchanged tonnage.

The value added still has to be measured

The figure that matters most for the cantonal economy is not the gross volume of trade, but the value added generated locally: processing fees, logistics services, wages and taxes paid to public coffers. Firm figures on this are still lacking. The Swiss Precious Metals Association, which includes Argor-Heraeus and MKS PAMP among its members, is currently researching this very question. Its president, Christoph Wild, speaks of over 1,200 direct jobs in Ticino and significant tax revenue for the refineries, but without providing a consolidated estimate of the contribution to public finances. Refining margins, moreover, remain thin, often below one-thousandth of the value of the gold processed; they are higher only for products with greater added value, such as mint coins for the watch industry.

On the origin of the metals, the sector applies a form of self-regulation: the association recommends that its members not import gold from the United Arab Emirates, Ticino's leading trading partner in this sector with 38.7 billion francs, due to doubts about the traceability of the source. The recommendation, however, does not bind refineries that are not members of the association.

The fact remains that authorities and the industry still have only partial estimates of this activity's real contribution to public finances in the Mendrisiotto and in Ticino. Closing this knowledge gap would help assess more precisely the economic weight of a sector so concentrated in a single district, beyond the gross trade figures.