Thailand : Jewelry sector in a hard up
January 31, 2007
Fibre2fashion.com, India
Jewelry export from Thailand was ranked among the top three major foreign exchange earners. But now gems and jewelry industry of the country has dropped from 5th place in 2001 to 8th in 2005.
The country is lagging behind China, India and newcomer Vietnam because of their low-cost advantage.
Increase in the prices of gold, diamonds and other gemstones, which the country has to import from overseas have considerably affected country’s jewellery export figures.
The expiry of duty-free privileges under the US Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) extended to Thailand will further hamper the country’s gems and jewellery export.
The fierce international competition and the inability to strengthen its competitive edge, the jewelry secor could become a sunset industry.
The statistics reveal that the gems and jewellery’s contribution to country’s exports fell to 2.7 percent during January-August 2005, when the combined export value was Baht2.83 trillion.
To get revived from this situation, Thailand needs to closely guard its traditional markets such as the US, Japan and several European countries and tries to penetrate actively the newer markets like China, India, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia where export opportunities are quite significant.
The gems and jewelry industry of the country employs around one million people, seriously needs to upgrade its production technology, designing capability, improve on skilled manpower, getting state support for provisions of lowering costs and create a brand which can be recognized internationally.
