VietNamNet Bridge – Haja Nazemuddeen comes here for the first time to gauge a market still unknown to his jewelry company, but the signals he sees at the three-day international jewelry exhibition promise big opportunities.
“I will make a couple of more trips back to Vietnam, and expect to find a suitable partner to distribute our products here,” says the sales manager of Singapore’s Monde D’or Pte Ltd., which joins the event together with 100 or so international jewelry companies from across the world.
Nazemuddeen remarks that there is much room for foreign participation in a country whose jewelry market, though highly potential, is largely limited to a few local brands with monotonous designs.
Many other exhibitors at the jewelry exhibition at the HCMC Exhibition and Convention Center in HCMC’s Tan Binh District share Nazemuddeen’s view, saying Vietnam’s jewelry industry is still underdeveloped, and therefore holds great potentials for more players.
A potential market
Not a single foreign jewelry enterprise at the three-day jewelry exhibition ending on Sunday disclaim the attraction of Vietnam’s jewelry market buoyed by the country’s fast economic growth. Understandably, 100 jewelry makers and traders from 15 countries and territories such as the U.S., Hong Kong, Thailand, and Italy have come to display their wares.
Haja Nazemuddeen, whose company Monde D’or Pte Ltd. mainly produces 18K gold jewelry items, says that the most attractive feature of Vietnam’s jewelry market is its big population, especially the younger generations who like and easily accept jewelry with modern designs. “The Vietnamese highly appreciate gold and tend to prefer designs with Asian features,” he remarks with the Daily.
Nazemuddeen says that he just wants to display products and see how Vietnamese customers value his company’s products.
It will be better if his company can find distributors in the country on this occasion, Nazemuddeen says.
“I hope after a couple of more trip to the country, I can find suitable partners to distribute our products here,” he says.
For the Hong Kong-based East Arts Jewelry Manufactory Ltd., the exhibition is a good chance for the gold and precious stone trader to widen its presence in the regional market, having set up its foothold elsewhere in Southeast Asia such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Tim Tsang, sales executive of the company, which specializes in gold jewelry and diamond, explains that his company has not been able to penetrate Vietnam, which should see a less fierce competition compared to other regional markets.
“We face a lot of competition doing Business in Thailand, while the Vietnamese market though still small is growing strongly. People here are getting richer given the fast-developing economy so the purchasing power on jewelry has risen too,” Tsang says. He remarks that there are a lot of business opportunities in Vietnam, and hopes to find local distributors as the first step to enter the market.
Since 2005, Vietnam’s demand on gold and gold jewelry is 30 to 35 tons per year while the demand for precious stones and diamond is about US$300mil worth a year.
Ground for local growth
The exhibition captures strong attention from both foreign exhibitors and local buyers. On the first day of the three-day exhibition, there were some 2,000 local visitors to the event. Many booths have always been flooded by local customers who want to acquire jewelries of new, attractive designs which they do not find available on the local market.
Exhibitors in talks with the Daily say that local jewelry products are monotonous in designs and materials. If Vietnam wants to become a recognized jewelry exporter in the future, many more must be done before the country can compete with other rivals in the region such as Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Says Haja Nazemuddeen from Monde D’or Pte Ltd.: “Honestly, Vietnam’s jewelry industry is still young, and is not yet a mature market such as Thailand, Singapore, or even Indonesia.”
He comments that the market has yet been open to foreign designs, and just has traditional designs that are usually not modern, which fails to attract young generations. That does not mean all Vietnam enterprises do not have modern designs but the number of big companies with agreeable designs is so few, such as Phu Nhuan Jewelry Co. (PNJ), Nazemuddeen says.
Squindo Limited Co., attracting many visitors at the expo, is the only one company operational in Vietnam joining the exhibition but it is also a foreign-invested firm. Daniel Muller, director of the company, shares the view with Haja Nazemuddeen, saying Vietnamese enterprises in general are not really creative in jewelry designs. According to him, local designs are so monotonous.
Squindo at the event introduced a new collection of items combining the more modern material of silver and traditional material of silk. The company’s products are mainly exported to foreign countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, and Italy.
With three years of experience operating in Vietnam, Muller says what local jewelry enterprises are lacking is exchange with outside markets. “To attract more European customers, Vietnamese companies need to join many exhibitions not only in the country but also in foreign countries to update information from global markets and to get to known technologies used in foreign companies.
Also according to Muller, what Vietnam also needs is an active association gathering local companies as well as experts to help develop the jewelry industry. The association should help local firms meet and exchange experiences with foreign partners, and join many fairs in the world, he says.
The absence of the supporting industry for jewelry making is also a difficulty for foreign companies wanting to enter Vietnam’s market, Muller says.
Haja Nazemuddeen from Monde D’or says Vietnam’s jewelry industry will surely develop in the future, but the tempo will depend on many factors, including the Government’s drive to privatize State-owned jewelry companies and its policies to encourage the establishment and development of new jewelry manufacturers.
Many foreign jewelry companies have found the jewelry exhibition, said by the organizer as the first of its type for international players only, as a good stepping stone to penetrate the local market.
Many of them – being the first-timers on the local market – say they will return for the second jewelry exhibition next year to prepare for deepening their presence. For them, Vietnam is a promised land, not only as a consumption market for their products, but also a production base to manufacture and export jewelries to the world market.
(Source: SGT)
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