Gems and jewellery export, which account for lion’s share in the country’s export basket, posted a 71 per cent increase (year-on year) in the April-December 2021 period to $28.9 billion and is set to touch an all-time high this fiscal, according to government estimates. “With $28.9 billion worth of gems and jewellery exports already achieved during the first three quarters of the current financial year, it has already surpassed $26.02 billion exports registered during the last fiscal and is likely to better the previous high of $35.89 billion scaled during the financial year 2019-20,” per a release issued by the Commerce & Industry Ministry on Tuesday. Exports from the sector registered an increase of 3 per cent when compared to exports valued at $28 billion in the pre-Covid-19 period of April-December 2019. In December 2021, India shipped gems and jewellery worth $2.99 billion, growing 16.38 per cent over December 2020. The gems and jewellery sector accounted for 9.6 per cent share of India’s entire exports basket during the April-December 2021 and was the third largest exported commodity after engineering and petroleum products.
Top buyers
The US was the top destination for gems & jewellery exports accounting for more than a third of exports in the nine month period, followed by Hong Kong, the UAE, Belgium and Israel. The sector contributes about 7 per cent to the country’s total GDP and employs the largest skilled and semi-skilled workforce of more than 50 lakh workers, the release said.