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The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council has urged State governments to allow manufacturing activity in diamond bourses, SEEPZ and MSME jewellery manufacturing companies at MIDC areas to fulfil the pending export commitments.
Despite the complete lockdown across the globe last month, Surat Hira Bourse exported diamonds worth about ₹200 crore to Hong Kong.
Pending export orders for polished diamonds and jewellery from various countries, worth thousands of crores, are stuck at various levels of processing and needs to be shipped out soon as rival countries such as Thailand and China have exited the Covid-induced lockdown to start jewellery production in full flow.
Units operating in the special economic zones in India have to follow the tough norms laid by the government and operate with one-third of the staff strength.
In fact, both the diamond bourse and SEEPZ in Mumbai are in Covid red zone and the units in these areas have to be extra cautious with employees coming to work from different parts of Mumbai.
State governments have to lay down strict measures to ensure that the deadly Covid virus does not take further toll and defeat the government efforts so far in containing the spread of the disease.
Colin Shah, Vice-President, GJEPC, said the industry is ready to abide by the rules laid down by State governments as the shutdown of business in last 45 days has hit exporters very hard, particularly when the demand in global markets is low.
Asked whether the supporting infrastructure is ready, Shah said the commercial flights and customs department have started operations and pending orders can be fulfilled before exploring for fresh orders.
“The industry is already getting enquiries for new orders from the west coast of the US as it is comparatively less affected by Covid. Even in Europe, a few countries are coming back strongly after the long lockdown,” he said.
There is an apprehension that exports this fiscal will be down by 20 per cent as people may cut down discretionary spends. The industry is expected to register the lowest export of about $15 billion in the fiscal ended March.
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