Rio Tinto to focus on affordable diamond jewellery in India

Rio Tinto, one of the leading producers of rough diamonds in the world, is planning to focus on the affordable diamond jewellery segment in India, a company official said.
"The affordable diamond jewellery has an average ticket price of Rs 35,000. This segment roughly constitutes 50 per cent of the diamond jewellery industry in India," Director of Rio Tinto's India representative office Vikram Merchant told PTI.
Rio Tinto, the Australian diamond miner which has two mines, one each in Canada and Australia, is among the top producer of rough diamonds in the world and enjoys a considerable market share in India.

Merchant said Rio Tinto, which created the 'Nazrana' brand few years back, is keen to expand in the affordable diamond jewellery segment, which it believes has good growth potential.
"Fifty per cent of the diamond jewellery sales is wedding related. But the balance is the affordable jewellery segment, where the growth is expected to happen," Merchant said.
Rio Tinto extends the Nazrana brand to select diamond jewellery manufactured with the rough diamonds supplied by the company to jewellers after polishing and cutting them.

Merchant said young consumers of the country have decent disposable income, and affordable diamond jewellery is gaining popularity in this segment.

"In India, the diamond jewellery industry had been growing at 15 per cent year-on-year for the last five years. However, growth in the last financial year had been somewhat muted due to the slowdown", he said.
He said Rio Tinto had been working closely with the customers in India, US and China to grow the market.
According to him, total rough diamonds produced in one year across all mines in the world is worth around USD 14 billion, adding that eight miners, including Rio Tinto, control 85 per cent of the global production.