Indian Jewellers Eyeing New Mkts, CIS Nations: GJEPC.

India, which is becoming the leading centre for gems and jewellery, is planning to increase its footprint in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said today.

"We were supplying jewellery to Russia and the CIS nations via Dubai. Now we want to increase out direct selling to these countries which provide good business opportunities for us," GJEPC chairman Rajiv Jain said on the sidelines of the 4-day Indo-Russia Jewellery Summit 2011 here.

He said, the direct gems and jewellery exports to Russia and the CIS nation is just a beginning, but looking at the response "we hope to capture 15-20 per cent of the market in those countries."

Russia manufactures only about 21 per cent of its jewellery and the rest is imported mainly from countries like China, Italy and Turkey.

Moscow Diamond Bourse president Alex Popov said there is a need to build some level of trust for Indian jewellery, which is generally perceived as lower quality.

As it is the Russian jewellery market is saturated and India is a late entrant to the region, he said.

"However, we have to work hard to remove this quality perception attached with the country and build on the fact that Indian jewellery are of good quality. We are already working on it and in another five years we expect the Indian jewellery to gain substantial market share in Russia," he said.

Presently, Russia exports more than half of its rough diamonds to India worth is over USD 2 billion, he said.

Source : moneycontrol.com