Jewellers turning to diamond as gold items losing sheen fast

FE Team | Published: July 10, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Badrul Ahsan Diamond jewelry business is expanding fast in Bangladesh due mainly to the high prices of gold and the changing trend of fashion in the Indian subcontinent, industry insiders said. The rising purchasing power of the people also played a part in spiking the demand for diamond in the local market, some of them said. The owners of gold jewelry showrooms across the country are expanding fast their diamond business to cope with the increasing demand for the precious metal, sources said. Many of the jewellers are now either selling diamond ornaments alongside the traditional gold and other items in their existing showrooms or opening exclusive outlets, especially in the city areas. Insiders said the local market of diamond ornaments, the size of which is Tk 15 billion, had been growing at an annual rate of more than 15 per cent for the last couple of years against a continuous fall in demand for gold jewelry at the same time. According to them, the demand for gold jewelry came down to around 10 tonnes per annum from around 45 tonnes a decade ago. Chairman of the General Jewelry at the city's Mouchak Market, Anwar Hossain, said that following a steady rise in demand for diamond jewelry in the country, he started trading in the precious metal alongside his traditional gold jewelry business. "The trend of gold ornament use is changing fast. Nowadays, women are increasingly choosing diamond jewelry instead of gold mainly for two reasons-one is the high price of gold and the other is the spill-over effect of the culture in India, our next door neighbour," he added. "Besides, the rising income level of the middle-class people also pushed them to switch from gold to diamond," he added. Mr Hossain, also president of Bangladesh Jewelry Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BJMEA), said diamond is the first choice of the Indian women. The Bangladeshi women also caught up with the trend thanks to satellite channels, he added. "Many of my fellow businessmen are now planning to start trading in diamond ornaments alongside their gold business," he said. One salesman at a showroom of the Apan Jewellers said they were selling diamond jewelry alongside gold ornaments in their showrooms across the country. The Apan Jewellers also opened a showroom exclusively for diamond ornaments at the city's Baitul Mokarram Market in the current month, he said. "Young women now prefer light diamond ornaments like necklaces, rings, lockets, earrings to gold jewellery and the middle aged women like mostly heavy ones," he added. "We are turning to diamond jewellery very fast," he said. A salesgirl at the Diamond World said diamond ornaments now have become prestigious ones and also a symbol of aristocracy among the city dwellers. The Diamond World has three big showrooms in the country. Two of them are in Dhaka and the other is in Chittagong with a collection of more than 5,000 designs in all categories, according to the salesgirl. "My only daughter demanded a diamond necklace as most of her friends are now using diamond sets instead of gold. So I could not disappoint her and came to such a showroom," said one Anwar Hossain, a non-resident Bangladeshi residing in Germany. "I could never imagine that there existed such a posh diamond jewellery shop in Dhaka. I have never seen such a shop anywhere in Europe," he added. The prices of diamond ornaments start from Tk 15,000 and run as high as several hundred thousand depending on size, colour, polish and cutting, sources said. Local ornament businesses usually import rough diamond from Belgium and the finished diamond mostly comes from India.