Click to play videoSurat: The global slowdown as cast a shadow on India diamond industry and Surat, the country’s hub for polishing diamonds is facing a lull.
Ironic, especially since this is the time when sales should be high due to marriage season and Christmas and New Year celebrations coming up.
The slowdown is because the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council has given a directive not to import rough diamonds between November 25 and December 31.
This has unit owners like Kirti Shah worried.
“The decision will help few, but most of us will suffer. When such decisions are taken, the chain gets disturbed and we incur losses,” he says.
The council's directive is a fallout of the economic meltdown in the US which buys 60 per cent of manufactured diamonds.
There has been a 20 per cent drop in exports in October 2008 as compared to October 2007 - from $1.56 billion to $1.24 billion.
The directive would benefit major exporters who are sitting on huge stocks of polished diamonds but not the 10 lakh workers in Surat’s diamond industry.
They have been given a compulsory 45-day Diwali vacation without even minimum wages
"Cutting down production is okay, but it is the question of 10 lakh workers. If the minimum wages are paid, then we have no problem with a cut in production,” says President, INTUC, Naishad Parikh.
But exporters are optimistic that the crisis in the industry would ease soon.
"Polished diamond stocks had shot up. Now stocks in the pipeline will get cleared. Maybe by then, the situation in America will also improve,” says Director of Badmecha Impex, Prakash Badmecha.
However, this optimism is not shared by other sections of the diamond industry.
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