Traders to continue importing rough diamonds

Even as the market is going through tough times, diamond exporters today decided to continue with imports of rough diamonds so that there are no lay offs.
The industry members of all associations, including the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), Bharat Diamond Bourse and the Mumbai Diamond Merchants Association (MDMA) today met to review current market trends and discussed measures needed to address the issues.
"The market has been going through tough times and there is a need to take steps to address these issues. In the current situation there is a decline in demand for polished diamond coupled with absence of profits in manufacturing as bank finance have become costly and absence of relativity of pricing of rough and polished diamonds are causing strain on the mid segment of the diamond value chain," GJEPC said in a release issued here.

The industry, it said, needs to address issues like diversification of funds to other businesses by some of the companies, dwindling profits due to low demand and stock hangover of polished inventory, which have affected the availability of bank finance and eroded the credibility of the industry, among others.
For now, the traders have decided to continue the imports of rough diamonds, form a 10-15 member committee comprising of business people from all associations to review the situation, meet with miners, bankers and the government to address the policy measures.