Industry Outlook with David Brough: August
04 Sep 2024
By David Brough
India’s largest trade show IIJS Premiere generates record USD $12 billion of business
IIJS Premiere (August 8-13, 2024), India’s largest jewellery trade event, saw high visitor turnout from the start, reflecting a buoyant domestic jewellery market, and generated a record USD $12 billion of business, organisers the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said.
The IIJS Premiere gathered domestic and international buyers seeking the latest Indian jewellery designs, as well as loose gemstones, polished diamonds and accessories.
Buyers packed into the halls at the two venues, the Jio World Convention Centre and the Bombay Exhibition Centre (Nesco), to restock gold jewellery, gemstones and pearls for the coming wedding seasons.
The gold jewellery hall in the Jio World Convention Centre, was crammed with visitors and buyers as the event kicked off on August 8, auguring for vibrant wedding season demand in the coming months.
A recent sharp drop in the Indian import duty for gold, from 15 percent to six percent, had stimulated demand, organisers said.
India is the world’s second largest jewellery market, after China.
Paul Rowley, Executive Vice President of De Beers, in an address at Jio on August 8, said the natural diamonds market was presently at a low point in the cycle, weighed by slow Chinese demand.
He voiced optimism that natural diamond prices would pick up, and referred to a “broadly stable”, soft market in the United States, where natural diamonds faced competition from laboratory-grown diamonds in some segments.
Since IIJS Premiere, natural diamond prices have started firming, Indian diamond crafting executives said.
IIJS Premiere attracted many domestic buyers restocking from exhibitors such as KIK Jewells Pvt. Ltd. who offered contemporary designs set in 22-carat gold, diamonds and coloured gemstones.
At the inauguration ceremony at Nesco, INHORGENTA Exhibition Director Stefanie Maendlein presented plans for an India pavilion at the Munich show in 2025.
UK’s Jewellery Show sees strong footfall
The third edition of the Jewellery Show (September 1-2, 2024), located for the first time at Olympia in London, saw strong footfall, signalling buoyant orders, and featured an India pavilion.
Now firmly established as the UK’s leading jewellery trade fair, staged once a year, organisers spoke privately of plans to extend the show to a three-day event, possibly from 2026.
To all intents and purposes, the show is already substituting for the former IJL (International Jewellery London), and has the potential to exceed the scope of that show in a few years’ time.
The Jewellery Show featured an India pavilion, organised by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), for the first time: exhibitors talked of strong enquiries from UK retailers for laboratory-grown and gemstone-set jewellery collections.
The presence of the Indian Pavilion underlined the Jewellery Show’s potential to exhibit suppliers from other countries, such as China, Thailand, Italy and Turkey.
Panel discussions
The Jewellery Show presented a strong mix of panel discussions. Its focus on insightful topical issues and education is clearly one of its strengths compared with some other events on the international calendar.
Themes included opportunities and challenges in natural diamond jewellery marketing; the future of sustainability in jewellery; and the future of social media marketing of jewellery.
One panel, looking at opportunities and challenges for British Asian jewellers in the UK market, discussed plans to develop a new British Asian Jewellers’ Alliance (BAJA) to defend the interests of the British Asian jewellery community.
Several British Asian jewellers were hit in recent months by a spate of violent robberies in the UK, possibly influenced by a growing public awareness of the high price of gold.
At the panel, the British Asian jewellers discussed opportunities, such as how to tap into the growing Indian luxury tourist market in the UK.
Source: David Brough