Without a doubt, it’s been a pretty lean year for the Thai gem and jewelry industry. Intensified competition from other countries in the region have led to sharp drops in jewelry exports over the first half of the year. This led to a series of closures of smaller companies and layoffs from bigger firms, who had to cope with the painful prospect of contracting business for the first time.
What happened? Had Thailand had progressed from buoyant youth to teetering old age without ever getting to enjoy the prime years of adulthood? Had the country become yesterday’s news?
Many local manufacturers were looking at the September Gems, Jewelry, Watch and Clock Show as a chance to prove the naysayers wrong—and as a chance to show the world that Thailand was producing increasingly high-quality products at prices that were still reasonable.
Set against such a backdrop, however, dealers were ripe for disappointment. And for most exhibitors, that’s what the September show was.
Attendance numbers were solid, with a claimed total of 5,100 trade visitors. The largest contingents came from the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and India. Despite the relatively high attendance figures, many vendors reported disappointing sales.
Of course, there were the usual excuses: lack of promotion, lousy weather, traffic woes, and the favorite: bad timing. Most unhappy dealers complained that this year’s show was not close enough to the Hong Kong fair, leaving foreign buyers were choosing
Either/or—instead of attending both shows.
“[It the fairs were on consecutive days] we lose out on buyers one day—the turnaround shift day,” said Sanjay Goyal of STS. “But this way, we lose out on the overall number of buyers.”
For these reasons, anyone asking exhibitors for their reactions was bound to encounter a lot of “slows”, “so-sos” and “not greats”.
“This show is a bit calm,” said Jacques Prades of Gamma Gamma Creations. “We have a few new customers, but not many.”
“It hasn’t been so great,” said Ittipol Arnuparb of Nopakaow Gold and Gems.
“It is disappointing,” said Goyal. “September usually is the fair people go for.”
Vikas Jain of Lotus Corundum tried to be diplomatic, but failed. “We were not disappointed…but it has not been what we expected.”
“This is a little bit slow. But its okay for us,” said Marcio Henrique, marketing manager for Brazilian stone dealer Marcelo Bernardes.
“I’ve been hearing from a few people that business seems to be off,” said Tom Chatham of Chatham Created Gems. For Chatham, business was definitely off. After three days which he characterized as “very slow,” he left Bangkok on Friday morning, nearly two full days before the end of the fair.
One Indian dealer saw the show as a signal of Thailand’s sinking popularity in world jewelry markets. “No one wants jewelry from Thailand anymore—people want from India,” said Ravi Agrawal.
Still, in every show there are some winners: one again, the most notable of them were dealers selling amber and pearls.
“I think my booth was the most crowded during the entire show,” said David Yick of YNA International, a dealer in South Sea pearls.
Perhaps so, but he might have been challenged by Peter Kral of SUC Trading, who was selling amber. “It’s getting more and more every show, better and better,” said Kral.
For Yick, this was the fourth time he has appeared at the Bangkok show, but he says that this time was “by far” the most successful. He attributes part of his success to several recent appearances on Thai television in which he was promoting and educating consumers about his products.
Another pearl dealer who found success was Michel Locow of Bangrak Gems, who registered strong sales with his new line of golden pearls. According to Locow, golden pearls are selling well to people who like to mix them in strands with white or black pearls.
Said Locow: “The Thai market used to be very bluffly—they like their jewelry big and cheap. But now people start to understand more about pearls—their beauty and their value—so they buy more.”
But another key part of Locow’s business—emeralds—lost the momentum they had earlier in the year, when they were among the top performers at the March Bangkok fair.
“Emeralds seem to be a bit weaker,” said Locow. He attributed the decline to a new four percent tax the Columbian government recently slapped on its emerald exports.
In terms of jewelry manufacturing, the September show showed the increasing maturity of Thai producers—a point that was not lost on buyers.
“The gold is very good overall,” said Ola Larsson from Zoola Trading. “Through the years, the quality has absolutely increased. There are many more companies doing very high quality.”
Larsson also commented on the rising standard of local silver manufacturers. “All those common booths that have been around for ages, now they are doing new stuff. The cheaper silver jewelry, the typical Bangkok stuff—you don’t see that too much anymore.
Silver dealers like Silvex and Silver Source showed the new look in silver design with modernistic pieces in satin silver finish. Others like J.R.Jewelry, Arxpo, Cifac, Best Luck, and Dora International were offering new looks in different varieties of marcasite.
Another interesting new product was carbon-locked jewelry from Blue River Diamonds, which featured diamonds beautifully—and permanently—suspended in clear carbon.
Some top designers like Prades weren’t even displaying their new lines to the general public, trying to deter copiers by allowing only serious buyers in to check out the latest merchandise. Said Prades: “Copying requires no investment in time, or the brain. I don’t like that.”
Platinum was on display from several jewelry manufacturers who have expanded their product lines beyond silver and gold. These included Beauty Gems, Thai Jewelry Manufacturer and Gem Bazaar.
And along with platinum production came platinum production equipment dealers, like Marco Ricci of Galloni, who was selling a platinum casting machine with the somewhat unfortunate name of Okay Phatinum.
Said Ricci, “People are showing a lot of interest.”
In stones, there didn’t seem to be too much new material on offer. Aside from rubies and sapphires, the most asked-for item—once again—was tanzanite.
Menahem Sevdermish of Menavi International in Ramat Gan, Israel reported solid sales in large, non-calibrated sizes of tanzanite, which he was selling for up to $500 per carat.
Lotus Corundum was selling a new line of colored diamonds—in canary and blue. In addition to tanzanite and pink tourmaline, STS was promoting color-change garnet and alexandrite.
One company with something a little bit different was Vardi Stonehouse, which was offering a variety of laser-cut stones—in onion, kite, and pineapple shapes.
“These are for anyone who is looking for something other than your everyday cut stone,” said Brett Getter of Vardi.
As for the latest addition to the fair, the new watch and clock section—reaction was mixed. The area was added at a very late date, which gave Reed Tradex, which handled operations for the fair, only three months to sell the new section. While Reed was able to fill up the area on fairly short notice, it might take a little longer for the new watch-and-clock zone to catch on with buyers. Traffic in the aisles in the upstairs area was light through most of the fair.
“Very few farang,” said Maethee Glumglin of Corum. However, Maethee noted that watches were selling fairly well to Thais at average prices of Bt100,000 and up.
Others said the location of the new section—upstairs and separate from the main show areas—were the major problem for them.
“I told my customers exactly where I was, and they couldn’t find me,” said Menahem of Menavi, who made a late decision to attend the fair, and was placed in the new area.