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Balancing act – a discussion with Vipul Shah

India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) tends to set an ambitious ‎agenda for itself. With around 5,300 members across India, the industry body is tasked ‎with lobbying government, trade and consumers to ensure growth for the gems and ‎jewelry sector.  ‎

Understanding diamond juniors: part one of a series

The outlook for the diamond industry suggests that market fundamentals are set to grow increasingly attractive. Harry Winston Diamond (TSX:HW,NYSE:HWD) said in its fact sheet for the third quarter of the 2013 fiscal year that demand for rough diamonds will exceed supply, while rough diamond supply will be constrained for the next seven to 10 years.

Reinvent or die

The world is in constant flux, and nothing remains static. Diamond centers, just like other kinds of trade centers, are constantly shifting. Amsterdam long ago lost favor to Antwerp, which enjoyed the benefits of Belgium’s rule over Congo.

Horses for courses

I’m sure our readers can’t failed to have noticed the scandal involving horse meat being passed off as beef, which began in Britain, but is slowly engulfing the rest of Europe and indeed the world, although in South Africa no horse was found but they did discover traces of water buffalo, goat and donkey.

Free market and VAT

Diamond business, like any other, is subject to cyclicality. All of us could see this clearly quite recently – from 2008 to the current year, 2013. The intensive growth of the world’s economy and Russia’s in particular, provoked an outburst of trade in rough and polished diamonds in the mid-2000s.

A level playing field? Never!

Is there any merit to criticism that the Indian diamond industry is using bank financing for “narrow and destructive interest of speculating on [sic] rough prices,” as the new president of IDMA (the International Diamond Manufacturers Association) recently claimed?

Cocktails

You may have gathered over time, if you are foolish enough to read a few of my burbles, that I am not one to resist too strongly the odd glass of wine passing my lips.