SURAT: The year that went by was one of the best years in a decade for India's diamond industry. From among all the cutting and trading centres in the world, the Indian diamond trade has been the most successful in turning the economic and financial crisis into a great opportunity by increasing its market share in the US. India's market share shot up from 20 per cent to 25 per cent in 2009.
This has been observed by Chaim Even-Zohar, a senior analyst with the Tel Aviv-based consultancy company Tacy Ltd, specialising in the international diamond trade.
In a detailed analysis report published on the company's official website, Zohar said the US imported 34 per cent fewer diamonds in 2009 compared to 2008. Its total gross imports came to $12.4 billion as compared to $18.9 billion in 2008.
Traditionally, Israel, India and Belgium are responsible for 90 per cent of US imports. By looking at the comparative positions of these three major competitors, the imports from Israel declined by 41 per cent followed by Belgium by 30 per cent and from India by only 21 per cent. This shows that India clearly was able to stem the declines and weather the storm better than others.
Zohar, further observed that in terms of market share in the US, India rose from the 20 per cent level that it has held for most of this decade to 25 per cent. This is phenomenal as it all came at the expense of Israel Israel held a 53 per cent market share in 2005, gradually sliding down to 49 per cent by 2008 and further to 45 per cent in 2009 while Belgium's share remains stable at 17 per cent.
According to provisional statistics from the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the export in the month of February 2010 increased by 54.96 per cent at US $2,252 million compared to US $1,453 million in 2009. The overall export from April '09 to February 2010 registered a 19 per cent growth compared to previous year.
Zohar observed that India had even more profound impact on the Japanese market. In 2009, Japan imported $619.2 million worth of polished diamonds, a decline of 19 per cent compared to 2008. India supplies 38 per cent of Japan's polished diamond imports, followed by Belgium with 22.3 per cent and Israel with a mere 9.7 per cent. But, during the global financial crisis, imports of polished diamonds from Belgium was less by 38 per cent followed by Israel 40 per cent and India stemmed its fall to only 10 per cent.
"From all the cutting and trading centres in the world, India is the strong contender for the Oscar award for turning the economic and financial crisis into a great opportunity," said Zohar.
Source : TOI