Indian Cut & Polished Diamond Exports -14% in FY 2016
May 01, 16(IDEX Online News) – The Gem and Jewelry Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) recently released its cut and polished diamond figures for the 2016 fiscal year, which showed that exports declined 13.66 percent to $19.97 billion.
In the 2015 fiscal year (April 2014 to March 2015), cut and polished diamond exports totaled $23.16 billion. The 2016 fiscal year results follow a five-year pattern of falling gross gem and jewelry exports, but this is the first time in six years that cut and polished diamond exports have fallen below the $20 billion threshold.
In total, the gem and jewelry industry exported $38.6 billion worth of goods, a 14.78-percent increase on the amount in the 2015 fiscal year. This contributed to India’s total cumulative exports of $261 billion, which represented a 15.85-percent decline over the same period in the prior year. Cut and polished diamonds accounted for 52 percent of the gross gem and jewelry exports during the period, while gold jewelry accounted for 22 percent and silver jewelry 8 percent respectively.
Exports of gold jewelry fell to $8.6 billion – a 13.07-percent fall, while colored gemstones saw a decline of 4.43 percent to $433 million compared to $453 million in the previous year. Other exports such as pearls, synthetic stones, costume and fashion jewelry saw a significant 50-percent increase.
Rough diamond imports also saw declining figures, falling 16.17 percent in the 2016 financial year to $14.05 billion compared to $16.76 billion a year previously. Net imports of cut and polished diamonds slumped nearly 60% to $2.77 billion compared to $6.64 billion in the prior year period.
GJEPC chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said that weak international demand and high rough prices were largely responsible for the absence of profitability.
“Slow demand has led to the fall in rough diamond import by 16 perent in FY 2015-16 for the first time. Rough prices are edging upwards, the sluggish global demand has created inventory pile up. Increased financial cost or inventory carrying cost has become unbearable. Interest subvention is the need of the hour,” he said.