The gems
Opening two days earlier than the jewellery event, the Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show featured a vast assortment of products. Diamonds occupied a large portion of the show with Antwerp and Israel hosting the largest pavilions, followed by other national groups.
Anecdotally, the busiest booths seemed to be those selling natural fancy colour diamonds. Following better-than-expected holiday sales in North America and despite continued sluggish demand in Asia, coloured diamonds have demonstrated relative stability, with overall prices holding their own or up slightly, according to a number of dealers. Yellow diamonds were the best performers followed by blue and pink. In addition to coloured and white diamonds, customers were interested in sliced, ice, and milky diamonds, said Sandeep Jain, owner of Thailand-based Deep Impex, who expressed satisfaction with the fair.
Optimistic for diamond sales in 2016, Eli Avidar, managing director of the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI), said Hong Kong is Israel’s second largest market for polished diamonds, representing nearly 30 per cent of total polished exports.
