De Beers sees India among top 3 diamond markets

Global diamond major De Beers has set its sights on India as it expects the country to be one of the top three markets for the precious stones in the coming decade. “...You know India is one of our top five priority markets and we certainly expect India, to be a number two or number three as we enter into the decade, probably after US and China,” Forevermark CEO and De Beers Group executive director and executive committee,ember Stephen Lussier told PTI.

Predicting that growth would be driven by Indian and Chinese markets, he said the company planned to fully tap tier II and III cities since majority of the sales came from them.
“According to me 10% of the diamond sales comes from India,” he added. “If you look at the sales of De Beers Group, India is well over 50% in our sales of rough diamonds.”
Talking about plans for India this year, Lussier said, “We are planning to tap Tier II and III cities as most of the business were coming from these regions.
On the impact of rupee weakening against US dollar, he said, “It has been a challenge. It has made the retailers to deal the diamonds more expensive. It also impacts the Indian industry because they need to finance the business, which runs in US dollars and to finance in rupees is harder.”