Technological awareness required for increased participation.
In a major step towards the growth of diamond industry in India, the online diamond auction has come as a booster for the diamond making units to avail rough diamonds.
But the industry insiders are apprehensive about the participation of the small diamond units.
Even as the online auctioning system is believed to save cost and time for a large number of diamond making units, the small players are believed to be shying away from it.
“Though the online auction has yielded desired results, but small players are still staying away from it. The technological awareness is still not prevalent among the small players. However, gradually we may see some improvement but looking at the current scenario the transition to online auctioning will take some time for small players to adopt it,” informed an office bearer at Surat Diamond Association (SDA).
For the online auction, a company obtains rough diamonds from Belgium and Antwerp and auctions it in the Indian markets making it convenient for the local diamond units to procure rough diamonds.
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“Earlier, the small diamond players had to purchase rough diamonds from the wholesalers, who at times charged very high price of the rough diamonds. Now with online auction system being in place, a competitive bidding takes place and buyers can buy rough diamonds at lesser cost and in shorter time,” said Pravin Nanavati, a diamond expert and former president, SDA.
On June 10, a Surat-based firm, Arjav Diamonds had arranged an online auction for rough diamonds.
As many as 70 small dealers had participated in the bidding, which saw 120 bidders from places like Mumbai, Israel and Belgium besides Surat.
However, experts believe that the online auction would not only reduce cost and time for the diamond dealers, but also would help them choose right diamond at right price.
According to industry insiders, the small diamond units would be the most to gain in the online bidding process.
“They are the most to benefit. First thing, they don’t have to travel long till Belgium or Antwerp to buy the rough diamonds and secondly, they can have a vast lot to choose from. They even have a liberty to buy individual pieces as well,” informed Agam Sanghvi, director Sanghvi Exports.
The online auction is believed to make Surat a favourite destination for rough diamond trading. So far Mumbai plays the key role in providing rough diamonds to the Surat-based diamantaires, which holds a major share in the world’s total diamond polishing business.
As per the industry estimates, merely 10 per cent rough diamonds are directly accessible to Surat industry, which remaining lot comes via Mumbai.