Gems and jewellery traders expect business to recover in last two quarters FY21

According to data provided by the Gem & Jewellery Export Council (GJEPC), exports in this segment touched $1.7 billion in August. It was higher than the $36 million registered in April but down 41.55% from that in August 2019. Surat is the diamond cutting and polishing hub of the country and 85% of the stones processed there are exported.

KOLKATA: Gems and jewellery traders expect a recovery in business in the last two quarters of this fiscal on the back of increasing output from Surat’s diamond factories and an uptick in demand from US, China and Europe.

They have accordingly revised their export estimate, saying overall shipment of gems and jewellery in 2020-21 will be 20-25% less than that in the previous year. Earlier, they had forecast exports would be down by more than 50%.

In 2019-20, the country had exported gems and jewellery worth $29.01 billion.

According to data provided by the Gem & Jewellery Export Council (GJEPC), exports in this segment touched $1.7 billion in August. It was higher than the $36 million registered in April but down 41.55% from that in August 2019.

Surat is the diamond cutting and polishing hub of the country and 85% of the stones processed there are exported.

Colin Shah, chairman of GJEPC, said, “We are optimistic of the near and long term, as several countries are now open for trade. We have witnessed initial signs of recovery from markets like the US, China, Europe and the export orders have seen a steady rise month-on-month over the last 4-5 months.”

According to Shah, all gems and jewellery export units are working in full swing and the trade is getting back to normalcy.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to have a decent recovery of gems and jewellery exports from the current levels and the overall decline gap will be minimized,” Shah said. “And the way the markets are opening and the trade is recovering, we are hopeful that we will be able to restrict the downside of exports to just over 20-25% at the closure of the fiscal year, as compared with previous year exports.”

For the April to August 2020 period, overall gross exports of gems and jewellery stood at $6 billion (Rs 45189.76 crore)–a decline of 47.65% (-43.59% in rupee terms)–compared with to $11.4 billion (Rs 80,116.55 crore) in the same period of the previous year.

In the first five months of FY21, India’s top exporting destinations for gem and jewellery were Hong Kong ($2716.29 million), USA ($1,739.49 million), UAE ($398.49 million), Belgium ($258.82 million), Israel ($167.12 million), Turkey ($146.50 million), Thailand ($110.72 million), UK (72.94 million), Japan ($64.17 million) and Switzerland ($48.90 million).

Courtesy: Economic Times