Gems and jewellery export falls by 5.3%

The Dollar Business Bureau

Due to weak global demand and high diamond prices, the gems and jewellery exports fell by 5.30 percent in the financial year 2015-16.

According to the data from Gem Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), gems and jewellery exports stood at Rs 22.13 lakh crore for the financial year 2014-15. However, for the current financial year 2015-16, exports of the same stood at Rs 2.09 lakh crore.

GJEPC chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said that the fall in exports is because of the slow-down in global markets like Europe, Japan and China. He also pointed out that surging prices and falling demand have resulted in the piling up of inventories.

A 10 percent rise is expected in the future of jewellery, polished and cut diamond exports as the global markets like Japan, US and Europe are slowly picking up. Pandya added that, they are expecting the exports to rise to the same level as that of 2014-15.

Lack of proper work policy is affecting the market on a larger scale. Global manufacturers are sending their raw material to China for manufacturing purposes, even though their labour cost is around 20 percent more than that of India.

Export of polished and cut diamonds have witnessed a slump of 13 percent in the year 2015-16. The slow demand has also decreased the import of rough diamond by 16 percent for the period 2015-16.

Another issue that the industry faces is that the small and medium exporters have still not succeeded in procuring duty-free gold from banks or from nominated agencies.