Article from: Economic Times (New Delhi, India)

Article date: October 17, 2005

Byline: Abhishek Shanker

Oct. 17--AHMEDABAD, India -- The disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina and Rita in the US has turned into a windfall for jewellers and jewellery accessory exporters in India, especially in Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

The unfortunate catastrophe has led to a high demand for crosses, which is revered by the Christian community, and other religion-related jewellery and accessories. Indian jewellers started getting huge orders for these products beginning September first week when the forecasts for Katrina first came.

"There has been a dramatic rise in orders for crosses and cross pendants from the US. We are making crosses of sizes ranging between less than one inch and three inches," Jay Begani, MD of the Ahmedabad-based Forever Diamonds told ET. The company has received orders for over one lakh crosses this year, of which 90 percent came after September first week. The company exported barely 10,000-15,000 crosses last year.

For most exporters in Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the growth in export demand has shot up. Some of them are reporting a 500 percent increase. The demand is mostly for diamond studded crosses which range anywhere between $99 and $1,000 for the end consumer. The size of diamonds for which orders have been received by the exporters in India is between 25 cents or quarter of a carat to 4 carats and are studded in white gold.

"We have seen an over 30 percent growth in orders for crosses alone since September," Rajesh Mehta of Rs 4,000 crore Rajesh Exports, a leading gold jewellery exporter from Bangalore having operations in Surat, said. Surat-based Shri Ramkrishna Exports too has witnessed an over 100 percent growth in demand for crosses since last year. "Cross pendants have been one of the best sellers this year," Govindbhai Dholakia, chairman of Ramakrishna Exports said. The overall growth in demand is in addition to jewellery and cross sale as a result of the festive season from December.

To see more of The Economic Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Copyright (c) 2005, The Economic Times, India
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com