Indian Jeweler

GJEPC: US Buyers Insisting Indian Manufacturers Boycott Russian Rough

A senior executive at India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) claims that US buyers are insisting that manufacturers in India commit to not using rough stones from Russia, IDEX Online reports.

 

According to Dinesh Navadiya, GJEPC’s regional chairman of Gujarat, told India’s Economic Times: “A number of units have received mails from the US buyers. They are worried over the matter. According to the reports, about “250,000 diamond workers in Surat have been put on two weeks’ unpaid leave as rough supplies are squeezed by sanctions and banking restrictions against Alrosa.”  Alrosa accounts for around 40% (by volume) of the diamonds that are cut and polished in Surat.

 

While the US outlawed Russian made rough, gem-quality diamonds after the invasion of Ukraine in February, the ban does not cover stones that are “substantially transformed” (namely cut and polished) elsewhere. Nevertheless, according to Navadiya, manufacturers in India are saying that “US clients are threatening to cease trading with them if they sell polished diamonds that originated in Russia.”

 

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