Mehta Confident India Will Beat Export Targets

India is certain to achieve its target of gem and jewelry exports of $16 billion by 2007 and is likely to surpass it as it heads for the Commerce and Industry Ministry’s target of $18 billion, says Bakul R. Mehta, the new chairman of India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) in an exclusive interview with IDEX Online.

Talking with him at his new Mumbai office, Mehta said the gem and jewelry industry was also on target to meet a $13.3 billion export target for the current fiscal year.

Not surprisingly, Mehta said the main problem facing the rapidly-expanding Indian industry was the shortage of rough goods with “too many people chasing too little supply”.

He said the GJEPC was holding talks with the government to use diplomatic means to boost supplies of rough diamonds, and the GJEPC had put together a list of countries for the Indian government to approach.

Regarding the Indian jewelry trade, Mehta said the main problem facing manufacturers was the need to keep improving quality as they moved into high-value products.

With the seemingly constant launch of new brands in the Indian market, Mehta also said only “the fittest would survive. The idea of brands will not go away, they are here to stay.”

With 40 percent growth in the past five years and a quickly growing middle class, Indian jewelry sales have taken off and are rising at 25 percent a year, leading many manufacturers to launch jewelry brands.