Turkish Jewelers Seek New Export Markets as Russian Demand Nosedives
March 13, 16
(IDEX Online News) – Turkish jewelry producers are attempting to increase exports by 30 percent to around $3.5 billion as trade with key market, Russia, suffered a 71-percent decrease in 2015, according to a report in The Hurriyet Daily News.
“Russia and the Turkic republics have been our key markets, but Russian economic activities have ground to a halt since the Ukraine crisis,” said chairman of the Turkish Jewelery Exporters Association (MIB), Ayhan Güner.
He said that Russia’s neighboring countries have been negatively affected by its economic slowdown, and the crisis over the Turkish Air Force’s downing of a Russian jet in November, has exacerbated the situation.
MIB data showed that jewelry exports – excluding gold plate sales – fell by 14.6 percent to $2.65 billion in 2015 compared to a year previously, although by volume, exports saw an almost 10-percent increase.
Güner said that the decline in value of exports was due to the slumping gold price, which two years ago was around $50,000 per kilo, but despite a recent rally, is now around $32,000 to $33,000.
Although exports to Russia saw the steepest decline, sales to Iran, UAE, Hong Kong, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Belgium and Kazakhstan were also negatively affected. Güner said that focus has shifted away from Russia, and now includes markets in the Far East, the Americas and Europe.
Turkey has abolished the special 20-percent consumption tax on diamonds, as well as the abandonment of the need for bourse members to pay reciprocal transactions among themselves.
“Turkey is also advantageous in terms of logistics,” said Güner. “We have also started preparations for diamond cutting and processing. The Belgian, Israeli and Dubai bourses earn around $100 billion annually through the diamond trade. We aim to lure 10 percent of this volume to Turkey over the next two years, which will boost our exports significantly.”