As per the recent data by GJEPC, the apex body for the gems & jewellery industry in India, the overall exports for the April 2023-December 2023 period have witnessed a downfall of 20.78% Y-o-Y to USD 22.7 billion from US$ 28664.98 million during the previous year.
During December 2023, a drop of 9.04% to USD 2.19 billion as compared to USD 2.4 billion in December 2022. The overall import of gems and jewellery too has declined by 22.43% Y-o-Y, to USD 15.59 billion from USD 20 billion during April 2023-December 2023 period and 7.58% to USD 2.09 billion, as compared to December 2022.
Rough Diamonds imports for the year have declined by 23.51% to USD 10.1 billion and 867.72 lakh carats during April-December 2023, as compared to USD 13.2 billion and 992.75 lakhs carats during the same period in the previous year.
Exports of diamonds in the cut and polished category too have witnessed a downfall. The overall exports for cut and polished diamonds declined by 28.27% to USD 11.9 billion for April 2023-December 2023, as compared to USD 16.62 billion for the same period in 2022. Compared to December 2022, the overall export of this product category declined by 32.11% to USD 862.48 million this year.
Contrary to this, the import of cut and polished diamonds is showing signs of positivity with a growth of 42.95% at USD 1495.33 million during the April 2023-December 2023 period from USD 1046.06 million in the same period last year, and 148% at USD 254.18 million in comparison to December 2022.
The sunrise sector of India, the Lab-grown diamonds (LGD) segment that has been constantly witnessing a rise in demand, has been losing steam. The provisional gross export of LGDs have witnessed a dip of 22.97% at USD 1.02 billion as compared to USD 1.33 billion in 2022. As compared to December 2022, there has been a steep drop in exports to 18.46% from USD 102.41 million as compared to USD 83.51 million in December 2023.
Commenting on the same, Colin Shah, MD, Kama Jewelry, said “The current slug in the performance of the overall gems and jewellery exports is owing to external reasons leading to sluggish demand across international markets. With India and the USA, among 60 countries going for elections this year, and the geo-political scenario adding to the economic burden of various countries, leading to inflationary prices, has led to poor demand.
However, the demand dynamics of gems and jewellery, across all variants and types are expected to make a gradual but steady shift towards improvisation and we are hopeful to see the sheen starting to reinstate from the 3rd quarter FY25 onwards.
Studded jewellery has performed better with April to December exports especially from SEEPZ Mumbai being at the same level of Rs 21,000 cr without any drop. This is a testament to the resilience of that category.”
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