With the first successful bid from a Chinese company at Gemfields’ recent emerald auction in August in Zambia, it is believed that the interest and significance of African coloured gemstones in China market is escalating.
Held 19-22 August 2019 in Lusaka, the auction featured a total of 5.68 million carats of commercial-quality rough emeralds from the Kagem mine. According to Gemfields, Cai Bao Cheng from China purchased 117,500 carats of large emeralds of over 31mm in size.
Lok Chen of the Chinese bidder said at the auction that they were impressed by Gemfields’ reliable grading system, their generous and consistent supply of gemstones and their fair auction process.
“Cai Bao Cheng is the first company to demonstrate the trend of increasing interest in Zambian emeralds coming from China,” said Sean Gilbertson, Gemfields CEO. “The company will cut and polish the rough at their factory in Shenzhen. The finished stones are destined for the Chinese domestic market.”
Gemfields believes that with more Chinese companies showing interest in participating in auctions, and Chinese consumers yearning for a more contemporary green gemstone to update their traditional fei cui, Cai Bao Cheng’s newly cut and polished Zambian emeralds could well be the first of many Gemfields’ gemstones to excite the Chinee domestic market.
In August, 10 Chinese professionals across the gemstones sector visited Gemfields’ mines in Africa to build their knowledge and passion for gemstones. The field expedition led by the Guild Institute of Gemology aimed to bring China to the source for a higher level of global gem industry knowledge and to connect China with the global trade, showing participants a good example of large-scale, sophisticated, ethical and responsible mining.
“By giving them a broader perspective of the global industry, Guild hopes it will enable students to better promote gemstones in China. The trip proved a great success, with participants posting enthusiastically on social media, to share the experience with their followers,” said Gemfields.
Apart from the long history with gemstones, especially jade, China also has a traditional fondness for ruby’s auspicious red colour which represents luck, happiness, beauty, vitality, success and good fortune, according to Gemfields.
“There is a growing awareness that African gemstones are now highly desirable and just as beautiful as the more established provenances such as Colombia and Burma. African countries are now the market leaders in production, with emeralds from Zambian and rubies from Mozambique dominating,” Gilbertson explained.
To help a wider audience in China build greater knowledge and understanding of coloured gemstones, Gemfields is working with the Guild Institute of Gemology to present a series of masterclass on ruby across the country.
Designed for wholesaler dealers, cutters, jewellery manufacturers, gemmological students and retailers to make them an ideal partner of Gemfields, the course will be offered in Guild’s classroom facilities in Shenzhen, with sessions to be held in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Hubei in cooperation with local universities and trade organisations. Attendees will base on Gemfields’ Mozambican ruby grading gem sets to learn about colour grading, quality assessment, treatment classification and identification, gemstone origin and supply chains.
Gemfields aspires to develop the course to be a systematic modular system that leads to the most intensive and practical training in the industry in China.
While being excited to see continued growth of Gemfields’ African gemstones in China, Gilbertson has expressed his concern over the tax issue in China. “A major obstacle is the import costs, which include a 10 percent duty and 13 percent VAT. The tax for gemstones has been reduced from 36 percent to 23 percent since March 2019, but further reductions would greatly assist the coloured gemstone market,” he told Hong Kong Jewellery.
In 2020, Gemfields will continue to focus its education and marketing initiatives on promoting social-responsibility and sustainability of responsible mining. “Gemfields aims to pioneer the understanding of responsibly sourced, coloured gemstones in the China market by compiling research on industrial insights, participating in jewellery fairs and organising media and trade roundtables to maximise the awareness of responsible sourcing,” says Gilbertson. (Photo courtesy: Gemfields)
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