De Beers targets young India to boost sales of diamond ornaments, solitaire

With its Forevermark brand launched in India, De Beers targets young India to boost its sales of diamond ornaments and solitaire.

Speaking on the sidelines of India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) 2019, Paul Rowley, executive vice-president, De Beers Group, said, “The ongoing US–China trade war has provided a good opportunity to tap immense of unexploited opportunity in India with its young, vibrant, and enthusiastic people exist here to gift a piece of diamond.”

Over the years, Forevermark has achieved tremendous success in India with huge consumer acceptance. To tap the potential De Beers has allocated $10 million on marketing. Globally, the United States consumes nearly 50 per cent of the world diamond jewellery manufacturing followed by China 13 per cent and India 6-7 per cent.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the world diamond jewellery trade today due to the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. The trade war should see a resolution sooner than later. The entire trade should come together to tap the untapped potential in which India can play a major role,” said Rowley.

De Beers which contributes nearly 35 per cent of the world rough diamond supplies, has projected to cut production of rough diamond supply in 2019 to 31 million carats from 35 last year.

Russian company Alrosa has also cut its diamond supply to the meet the demand which is currently under pressure due to the unfavourable global economic condition.

“With the demand situation is not favourable, we have only two choices: cut supply or lower prices. We have lowered our rough diamond supplies to create a demand hunger which we believe will come soon,” said Evgeny Agureev, Director, United Selling Organisation, Alrosa.