IIJS 2010 Concludes on an Upbeat Note

The IIJS 2010 which concluded on the evening of August 23rd, was an overwhelmingly successful show with exhibitors and buyers across the board expressing satisfaction at both the business conducted and organization of the show.

“Fantastic. The show has been just fantastic. We have seen an increase in business interest by at least 200%, I would say,” said Jaymin Vora of Romil Impex.

Though not all exhibitors would put the figure so high a great majority reported that business had increased substantially.

A Diamond World IIJS Daily survey conducted on Day 4 (August 22) of the show with a representative sample from exhibitors from different sections - loose stones, jewellery and couture -- reported that: 80 percent of exhibitors had gained new clients; and a massive 72 percent reported a significant increase in business with 16 per cent putting the increase at over 30 percent and a huge 56 percent putting it between 10-30 percent.

Nitin Khandelwal of Khandelwal Jewellers, Akola, said, “The variety of jewellery is really amazing and I was able to find whatever I was looking for which is quite a wide range.” Nitin Vijay of Guptasons Jewellers, Delhi however felt that jewellery companies need to do greater product development to come up with jewellery which was more creative and innovative while at the same time being practical. He however said that they had placed orders in many categories.

Rosyblue’s experience in the loose diamonds section was also extremely positive. “The response this year has been stupendous, perhaps the best in the last 2-3 years, and the demand from the Indian market has been very good,” said Anshul Mehta from that company. Eitan Namdar from Schachter & Namdar Asia Ltd, participating in the Israeli Pavilion said, “This year the IIJS has been good with a lot of traffic and quality buyers.”

In terms of trends, it is clear that diamond jewellery is gaining ground rapidly; there is a greater move in preference for western or indo-western designs as compared to traditional Indian designs; lightweight gold jewellery is in great demand in deference to the high price of gold.

Though at the time of writing, the show organizers had not finished compiling the statistics for the show, there is little doubt that it met all expectations prior to the show. The GJEPC had expected a visitor turnout of 30,000 visitors, and IMRB had projected a total business turnover of Rs. 4000 crore compared to last year’s Rs. 3400 crore.

If there is one common complaint it is the lack of space! Individual companies in single booths would like to expand to larger spaces as well as pavilions like Israel would like to bring in more exhibitors. There is also a waiting list of companies who have been wanting to exhibit but who could not be accommodated due to space constraints.

Repeated requests over the years to the Maharashtra government for support to put up a exhibition centre of international standards and large enough to cater to the demand have yielded no results. This is a problem that will have to be tackled sooner than later, as India becomes the cynosure of the international gems and jewellery industry and zooms upward from its current position of the second largest fair in Asia and the fifth largest in the world.