India’s biggest gem and jewelry trade fair was even bigger than usual last month, when more than 40,000 visitors filled the recently expanded halls of the India International Jewelry Show (IIJS) Premiere edition in Mumbai. The growth of the show highlighted the potential for similar growth in the country’s polished-diamond and jewelry export sector, despite concerns about a credit crunch and the marketing of synthetics.
The fair, which rebranded last year to include the Premiere moniker, added a new exhibition hall this year that held 800 booths, a signal that organizers believe strongly in the Indian trade’s future. Retail and wholesale visitors, mainly from Asia and the Asian diaspora, flocked to jewelers such as Anand Shah and Birdhichand Ghanshyamdas to order designs widely seen as on-trend for Asian buyers. The show hosted more than 1,300 exhibitors, according to the state-backed Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
Silver jewelry and the latest plating technologies were outstanding performers among Indian gem and jewelry exports in 2018, said GJEPC chairman Pramod Agarwal. “Next year, the show will be even bigger, with more designers and artisans,” he told a delegation of UK retailers during the event.
Multibillion-dollar sector
IIJS Premiere is a major conduit for Indian gem and jewelry exports, which account for 7% of total Indian GDP and five million jobs. The annual value of those exports is expected to reach $70 billion in the coming years, up from the $41 billion forecast for 2018, Agarwal said.
Such turnover dwarfs exports from other countries; most of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished in India and re-exported, and the country is a leading exporter of machine-made and handcrafted gold and gem-set jewelry. It’s well-positioned to extend its dominance as a supplier to the international market, thanks to its strong craftsmanship and competitive labor costs, among other things. The IIJS Premiere show is just one of many trade fairs and buyer-seller meetings the country hosts throughout the year.
Room for improvement
Yet IIJS Premiere has its share of challenges. For one thing, it struggles with presentation, as the exhibition halls are built with cheap construction materials and bumpy floors, and the Wi-Fi connections are poor. For the international visitor, this can’t compare with state-of-the-art trade fairs like Baselworld and VicenzaOro.
In addition, transportation to the show from nearby hotels is ensnarled in noisy traffic jams, and visitors complain of long lines to enter and leave the halls amid tight security.
Still, organizers are working hard to improve the experience for buyers, Agarwal said.
And for all that, big business is done at IIJS Premiere. The total value of orders at this year’s event came to more than $1.15 billion (INR 80 billion), according to GJEPC vice chairman Colin Shah.
“The jewelry and diamond and colored-gemstone business is flourishing,” Gaetano Cavalieri, president of the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), said in a keynote address at the event’s opening ceremony.
Hot topics
Aside from the standard trade-fair chatter, a number of wider issues came up in conversations at the show:
Currency changes. A weakening of the rupee against the US dollar helped stimulate exports to leading markets for Indian gems and jewelry, such as the United States and China.
Credit squeeze. India has seen a tightening of credit following bank fraud allegations against jeweler Nirav Modi and related businesses. However, it’s not expected to have a big impact on the largest, most efficient exporters. “Smaller companies with weaker balance sheets are more vulnerable,” noted Sutariya Vipul, sales and marketing director at manufacturer Dharmanandan Diamonds.
Lab-grown legitimization. The recent guidelines from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) expanded the definition of diamonds to include lab-grown stones. Indian jewelers privately expressed worries that unscrupulous marketing of diamonds to conceal their origins would surge as suppliers took advantage of the guidelines. Shah rejected such fears at the beginning of the show, noting that some industry members already misled consumers. However, Jean-Marc Lieberherr, CEO of the Diamond Producers Association (DPA), told reporters he disagreed with the new FTC standards, saying they would “give marketers the opportunity to test the limits.”
The next iteration of the show is IIJS Signature, which takes place next year from February 8 to 11.
Image: IIJSArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2018. To subscribe click here.