Jewellery Fashion Week to run alongside IIJS
LONDON, June 15, 2010 – A Jewellery Fashion Week featuring dozens of India’s leading designers will take place for the first time alongside IIJS in August, said Rajiv Jain, Vice Chairman of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
Harish Raniga, Chairman of the Green Street Jewellers’ Association (GSJA), and Rajiv Jain,
Vice Chairman of India’s Gem and Jewellery
Export Promotion Council (GJEPC)
“We are getting the best designers of the country on a single platform – there are 36 of them,” Jain told Jewellery Outlook in an interview during a visit to London Jewellery Week.
“This is the special attraction of IIJS this time. We are doing this for the first time in India.”
The India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) will run from August 19-23, 2010 in Mumbai. The Jewellery Fashion Week will take place during the three days before the start of IIJS.
Jain also said that the GJEPC, which promotes exports of gems and jewellery from India, now accounting for almost a quarter of total Indian exports by value, was expected to organise an India pavilion at the International Jewellery London (IJL) trade fair in London in late 2011.
He said he expected 10-15 Indian exhibitors to take part in IJL this year, which will take place from September 5-8.
India has increased its gem and jewellery export market share to the United States despite the economic downturn and is now promoting its exports vigorously in key growth markets such as the United States; Hong Kong, gateway to China; some Latin American and CIS countries, as well as the domestic Indian market, Jain said.
“We are also focusing on eastern markets like South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia,” he said.
Jain said he expected Indian gem and jewellery export sales to increase by 7-8 percent in 2011, compared with total exports in 2010 now running at around $28 billion.
“Next year I see better growth into the United States and other countries,” he said.
Around 2 million people are employed in the gem and jewellery industry in India. Around 11 out of 12 diamonds that are processed, pass through India, Jain said.
Jain expressed concerns over the high and volatile gold price which he said complicated purchasing decisions, but he expected Indian gold jewellery wedding demand to be resilient.
“In India buying jewellery for weddings and other occasions is a ritual,” he said.
“People throughout their lives save money to spend on weddings. That tradition is intact.”
www.gjepc.org
www.londonjewelleryweek.co.uk
www.jewellerylondon.com
