Lankan gems, jewellery to make inroads into Russia

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

High demand for Lankan gems and jewellery in the world.

Sri Lanka’s gem and jewellery exports will make inroads into Russia when the Export Development Board organizes a national pavilion at the JUNWEX 2011 in Moscow in September.

This will be the first time that Sri Lanka will be represented at any gem and jewellery exhibition in Russia and this is one of the strategies that we will be adopting towards pursuing new markets, EDB Chairman Janaka Ratnayake told Daily News Business.

There had also been a series of exhibitions and promotions in China where Sri Lanka participated at the Kun Ming Commodities Fair where out of the 84 Sri Lankan exporters who participated at the event, 44 were exporters of gem and jewellery.

“We are in a massive push in promoting gems and jewellery in emerging markets and Sri Lankan exporters have participated in over 30 trade fairs recently. Kun Ming is special as it is the gateway from China to the South Eastern region as these buyers are rich and they will be paying big time dollars,” he said.

The EDB has also taken a series of promotions in Saudi Arabia and South Africa and is attempting to access the African continent, he said. Meanwhile, addressing the FACETS inauguration at the Galadari Hotel on Friday night, he said that the EDB intends to pursue the entry into the Russian market, opening this new and lucrative market to the local gem and jewellery industry in Sri Lanka.

The EDB is also planning to organize the buyer delegations for FACETS Sri Lanka 2011 from emerging and non- traditional markets such as Russia.

The holding of FACETS on an annual basis has fortified the local industry by strengthening the relationships between international gem and jewellery centres.

A further aspect of the gem and jewellery industry that augurs well has been the turnaround of the industry where there was a positive growth of 1.56 percent in 2010 and 0.18 percent in the first quarter of 2011, in contrast to the -26 percent growth in 2009. He said the industry has the ability to bring value to the grassroots levels and that the EDB has launched several programs to position the industry by using the worldwide reputation to move into high end markets. Exports have grown 17 percent in 2010 over 2009 while the first quarter of 2011 has shown an increase of 44 percent from the corresponding period a year ago.

Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association Chairman Macky Hashim said FACETS has been organised in accordance with the other exhibitions of the region and will facilitate the participation of the others in the region and that the exhibition will provide the form for the local exporters to showcase their products to the rest of the world.

FACETS Sri Lanka Chairman Chanaka Ellawela said Sri Lanka as an emerging economy is looking forward to expand its trade ties with the South Asian Region and specially India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.