Diamond merchants in Gujarat are adding glitter to their business by foraying into the value-added jewellery making. Some of the diamond traders have turned to value-added jewellery making while continuing their business of diamond trading.The industry expects increased revenue generation from the value-added jewellery segment.
In order to capture a larger market share in the gems and jewellery segment and take advantage of high export and domestic demand, diamond merchants from Surat have already ventured into jewellery making business. "In my knowledge, there are several leading diamond merchants from Surat who have ventured into jewellery making businesses besides their diamond operations, that includes Bhavani Gems, Hari Krishna Jewels, Laxmi Diamond and Shital Diamonds," said Damji Mavani, secretary, Surat Diamond Association.
"The trend has already started among the diamond merchants in Surat. This development is very prudent for the industry here. The industry has resources and knowledge about the gems and jewellery. While, the diamond business has already come to a saturation level, there are better prospects for jewellery segment in domestic and international market," said KK Sharma, director, Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) - a Surat-based training institute for diamond and jewellery sector.
The diamond industry is believed to have reached to its pinnacle and there seemed limited prospects for further growth in the same domain. "Diamond makers need to expand their avenues in terms of forward integration by adopting value-added jewellery making, else they will have to continue with their existing work at the same level," said Sharma adding that more and more diamond players were expanding operations into jewellery making.
"India is a huge market for jewellery. At present melee cut and clustered jewellery are more in demand. There are a few of the diamond merchants who have gone for forward integration and opted for jewellery making as a part of their expansion. This is a profitable proposition for them," said Tehmasp Printer, managing director, International Gemological Institute (IGI) - a global diamond and jewellery certifying agency.
Even as the diamond industry is facing manpower crunch presently, there does not seem to be much problem for the jewellery business as IDI has chalked out courses specially focusing on jewellery making and designing. The institute, jointly funded by government of Gujarat and other government agencies, has established a new training campus near Surat apart from the existing center in the city having about 150 students.
The Surat-based diamond industry that operated mainly into the loose diamonds, has started looking at value-added jewellery both from precious metals and chrome metals. "We are aiming to increase the share of jewellery in our operations. Jewellery has higher demand than loose diamonds among the domestic consumers. Secondly, there are issues of rising costs in diamonds, hence we are hopeful to make fairly good earnings from jewellery and reduce our cost burden," said a diamond-unit owner from Surat.
Considering the cost and labour issues that are making a dent in the growth of the diamond industry, the industry has opened its arm for the next level of growth by way of value-added jewellery making. Industry insiders expect huge potential in the domestic as well as international market.
