According to the Israel Ministry of Economy’s Diamond Controller, during the first three quarters of 2013, Israel’s net polished diamond exports rose 8.7 percent to US$4.7 billion, compared to US$4.3 billion for the same period last year. Net rough diamond exports totaled US$2.2 billion, compared to US$2.1 for the first three quarters of 2012, an increase of 8.5 percent.
Net rough diamond imports rose 9.4 percent to US$2.9 billion, compared to US$2.6 billion of 2012. Net imports of polished diamonds totaled US$3.06 billion, compared to US$3.09 billion for the same period last year, decreasing slightly by 1.1 percent.
New service
In the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, the Israel Diamond Pavilion housed 90 companies plus 30 exhibitors in various locations throughout the show. The Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) reported that Asian market, as one of its most important long term growth areas, are representing close to 30 percent of Israel’s total polished diamond exports.
In order to help diamond buyers find the exact goods they were seeking, IDI launched online database of all the diamonds offered at the show at its image booth. In addition, introduced by Gilat Elizov Gefen, managing director of IDI’s Hong Kong office, IDI is offering a great deal of subsidized courses and services to the industry including jewellery making, branding and marketing, e-commerce and providing information and assistance on entering new markets.
China initiative
Nissim Palomo, CMO of IDI talked about 2014 initiatives in a recent interview with Hong Kong Jewellery: “In addition to continuing active trade via Hong Kong shows and public relations, we are planning to expand our marketing activities in Asia, especially in China.”
“For example, we had the first national pavilion at the Shanghai show this May and we are looking forward to participating in more trade shows in Mainland China,” he added.
“With participation in Shanghai show, the Israeli companies started to learn the trading and marketing rules and regulations in China market. The penetration progress is a little slow but we keep adjusting to cater to this market. Relationship is very important and it takes time to build up. Increasing our exports to Mainland China is a big challenge, but it is one of our major targets in the future,” Palomo explained.
“The world economy has slowed down since 2012. China has been more or less affected. Although diamond consumption in China is below our expectation, we believe it will keep growing in the long term,” he noted.
Other key markets
IDI released that in 2013, the United States continued to be Israel’s major market for polished diamonds, accounting for 35 percent of the market, with exports of US$1.6 billion. Hong Kong was the second largest market with 28 percent of exports or US$1.3 billion. Switzerland accounted for 9.6 percent with exports of US$447 million, and Belgium came next with 7.6 percent or US$350 million. All of Israel’s other export markets combined stood at 19.8 percent of the total with a value of US$919 million.
“The US market is fortunately rebounding and we are confident to say 2013 is a good year. Switzerland remains as an important market since Israel supplies many precision cut diamonds for the high-end Swiss watch industry,” said Nissim Palomo.
“In August, we hosted a huge event at the Israeli Diamond Exchange – US & International Diamond Week in Israel, which brought more than 500 diamond buyers from all over the world to trade with 400 Israeli diamond companies. The transaction value of the four-day show was close to US$2 billion. The largest contingents to the event were from the United States, India, Hong Kong and Europe.” he added.
Industry outlook
IDI is constantly working on increasing the amount of rough diamonds offered to the industry and helping diamantaires add value for cut and polished diamonds to increase margins. Palomo said: “We hosted rough tenders of Rio Tinto, in addition to regular tenders of Fusion Alternatives Ltd, I Hennig & Co Ltd, Alrosa, etc.”
“We are now talking to more rough suppliers to open sales operations in Israel which we believe competition amongst rough suppliers will help raise margin for manufacturers,” he continued.
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