NEW DELHI: In the current scenario, where the luxury products market across the world is struggling, India’s exports of silver jewellery have risen steeply in the last five years. Since 2010-11, exports of silver jewellery from India have increased fourfold. The data from the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) revealed, that India’s silver jewellery exports stood at $2959 million (about Rs.19,407 crores) in the fiscal year 2015-16 as compared to $566 million in 2010-11.
The fourfold jump in silver jewellery exports is due to a shift in customer preferences towards light weight, contemporary and modern designs of stone-studded ornaments. The shift also enabled surge in export of silver ornaments of 44 percent in 2015-16, compared to the previous financial year. In 2014-15, around $2 billion worth of silver jewellery was exported from India.
The surge in exports of silver jewellery has created opportunities for Indian jewellery artists to compete with existing leaders of market — such as China, Thailand and Turkey. Lower prices and increasing consumer confidence have attracted the customers to choose an alternative to gold with assured buyback. These are some factors that resulted in growth of exports of silver jewellery from India.
The prices of silver in the global markets have dropped by 50 percent in the last five years. However, in domestic market, the impact of price drop was less due to devaluation of the Indian currency. In Indian rupee, silver prices slipped to Rs.36,990 per kg, from Rs.56,290 per kg in 2011-12, a decline of 34 percent. In the meantime, India’s imports of silver also quadrupled over the past three years to 7954 tonnes in 2014-15, from 1900 tonnes in 2011-12.
