2020! Pandemic! 2020 was a year of miss happening! No one was expecting such a tragedy that would change our life! Many people lost their jobs, their love, their soulmates or relatives, and much more that we cannot even imagine!
Due to the outbreak of covid, many businesses had suffered a great loss and some had even seen a downfall! The jewelry sector has also been affected because of covid! March is the financial year-end involving the final keeping of the book of accounts that was delayed because of the national lockdown. All of this had a huge impact on all sectors.
Post covid challenges on the Indian jewelry industry
India is the largest global center for diamond cutting and reproducing sectors, Hong Kong being the biggest exporter for the Indian market holding up to 30% share.
According to an industrialist, retailers are managing to do only 20-25% business due to fewer footballs amid the virus’s spread.
The major reason for the downfall of the gems and jewelry industry is the shutdown of physical retailer stores all over the country. However, one of the last few weeks there has been a ray oh hope after the government has announced the opening of some business.
Another reason for its downfall is that a large number of traditional jewelry businesses have been offline for their entire life cycle. This is applicable for Cities located in tier 3 and tier 4 in India, where the retail seller had no reason to take their business online leading to major downfall.
As jewelry has a special role in weddings. Indian wedding is considered incomplete without the touch of jewelry. With so many functions, gifts, culture, and traditions, jewelry plays a significant role in an Indian wedding. Due to the outbreak of the covid -19 wedding ceremony was called off. This leads to a significant fall in sales of jewelry.
The gold rates have fallen significantly and the world's second-biggest consumer has tumbled down as it is witnessing the slowest pace of growth in the last 11 years. The health department is encouraging people to stay at their homes and discouraging them from venturing out for business which has lead to a downfall in the export and import list. The gems and jewelry industry has suffered major disturbances in its smooth functioning across the globe.
As mass shopping, mall, wedding season and celebration of other festival has come to a halt the jewelry industry is witnessing no customers. The average sales have been dropped down.
Though things are getting back on track, it seems that the after-effect of the coronavirus on the jewelry industry is still haunting.
The harsh jewel cost from the mineworkers was high whereas polished diamonds prices in the market are nominal driving to discernible crevices. Hence the businessman was already sustaining huge losses. The existing exchange between China the US has activated the ruin of the precious stone trade. In Hong Kong, nearly half of 2011 resulted in misfortune owing to the riots within the city to an extent affecting commerce.
"Export of gems and jewelry is expected to decline by 20-25% in 2020-21 from the Rs 2,52,249.46 crore in 2019-20. The industry is expected to recover to 2019-20 levels by next year and growth will likely come back by 2021-22," GJEPC chairman Colin Shah said at a virtual press conference as part of the closing of Virtual India International Jewellery Show (IIJS).
How will we overcome these challenges?
As we all know with an increase in COVID-19 cases markets all across the world have been affected because of the pandemic.
The demand has gone down and pain has started to deepen as lockdown continues.
The challenges for the jewelry industry will continue even after the situation stabilizes.
The jewelers had to wait for the buyers to settle and allow them to get back to their routine. According to a source, consumer demand is expected to take a little growth in the next quarter but no one is sure whether the people will invest in jewelry or not.
It will take more than a year for things to stabilize.
As gems and jewelry sector is depended on lots of things like festivals, rituals, weddings, customs, culture, and traditions, as these things were no longer a part of our lives, till the time things won’t get back to their routine, jewelers need to sit tight, lower their expenses and maximize the business in the present situation.
It will take some time for the situation to get better.
We can expect gold prices to increase a little in the coming months.
Everyone is trying their best to make sure the situation is under control as we are focusing on recovering from the pandemic.
We do hope that everything will be back. We will again celebrate all the functions and perform all the rituals with joy and happiness without fearing the virus.
We expect customers to start investing in the segment and buy more and more jewelry.