NEW DELHI: More than 100 Indian jewelers traveled to Jeddah this week to participate in the inaugural Saudi Arabia Jewelry Exposition (SAJEX), as the industry looks to diversify export markets in response to US President Donald Trump’s hefty tariffs on goods from India.
As part of his ongoing global trade war, Trump doubled the total duty on Indian exports to 50 percent last month, citing New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil as a reason.
With the levies — the highest in Asia and among the greatest ever imposed on a major trading partner by any American administration — expected to hit labor-intensive sectors such as gems and jewelry, the industry’s apex body in India is now working to find alternative markets to offset their impact.
“In our sector, the US accounted for 30 percent of our exports … because of the tariffs by the US, now all exporters are forced to look at new markets (to) offset the losses from the US,” Kewal Krishan Duggal, director of policy at India’s Gem and Jewelry Export Promotion Council, told Arab News.
India’s annual gems and jewelry exports are worth about $28.5 billion, and constitute the country’s third-largest US export sector. The industry employs around five million workers.
This week, GJEPC India launched SAJEX 2025, a three-day jewelry exhibition held at the Jeddah Superdome, in an effort to connect jewelry exports from India and other countries with Saudi buyers.
“We have a good scope to capture that market … We see Saudi as a very big market and a gateway to the markets in Africa,” Duggal said.
SAJEX, which concluded on Saturday, was organized in cooperation with the Consulate General of India in Jeddah and the Embassy of India in Riyadh and supported by Invest Saudi and the Chambers of Commerce of Jeddah and Makkah.
“The Saudi market is opening up and it will be good for the local trade to network with our industry for growth prospects,” GJEPC chair Kirit Bhansali told Arab News, adding that his organization is hoping to develop SAJEX into the “gem and jewelry trading hub” of the Middle East.
“We are looking at collaborations to explore the market. Saudi Arabia, with four billion dollars of jewelry demand, has the potential to double that in a very short time. Collaboration with leaders in gem and jewelry countries like India will help the Saudi industry too.”
The Kingdom is a “very large market” for gems and jewelry, said Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan, Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
“From a (consumer) perspective, it is the largest market in the region. India is a leading exporter of gems and jewelry in the world, (but) currently India’s share in the Saudi market is modest,” he told Arab News.
“SAJEX will help connect India’s jewelers and designers with Saudi buyers. It will enhance trade and joint collaborations,” he continued. “Such collaborations strengthen the overall economic partnership between India and Saudi Arabia.”
