Diamantaires set eyes on IIJS in Mumbai

SURAT: With the prices of polished diamonds and the demand for diamond studded jewellery rising in the global market, the Indian diamantaires and jewellery companies have set their eyes on the five-day India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) being organized by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) from August 4 in Mumbai.
Official sources said the IIJS, now in its 28{+t}{+h} year, has evolved as India's official platform for showcasing the country's manufacturing capabilities in jewellery, designer diamond jewellery and polished stones.Over 800 leading companies from the country and overseas are expected to take part in the show.
"It is time India is established as a brand to reckon with in the gems and jewellery sector. Indian gems and jewellery industry enjoys a leadership position globally in manufacturing diamonds. Now, our focus is to increase our global share of jewellery export by 40 per cent by 2015," vice-chairman of GJEPC Sanjay Kothari said.
According to Kothari, the gold and diamond studded jewellery export has been increasing at 10 per cent year-on-year basis. India has become the biggest exporter of jewellery to the US, realizing 30 per cent share in the global jewellery export. As per the global surveys by the research firms, India and China together will realize total sales of $80 billion by 2015 in jewellery and both the countries will form a bigger market than US.
India has a prominent jewellery manufacturing base accounting for 17 per cent of the world jewellery fabrication pie. The jewellery exports opportunity has attracted many big diamond manufacturing companies to forward integrate and move up the value chain by taking the initial advantage of low cost labour to manufacture international quality jewellery designs.
In the recent years, Indian manufacturers such as Gitanjali have forayed overseas by taking over the jewellery retail outlets in the US and at the same time several large overseas players have outsourced jewellery design and manufacturing to the players having their units in the special economic zones in Surat and Mumbai.
Chairman of Sanghavi Exports Chandrakant Sanghavi said, "IIJS provides an internatitonal platform to the diamond jewellery manufacturing companies in India to showcase their talent to the visiting foreign buyers. Every year, the show generates between Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 4,500 crore worth of business turnover."