One manīs meat...
is another manīs poison
Europeīs export-oriented industry suffers from the low dollar rate and in the United States retailers bemoan the dwindling of domestic demand, fuelled by the current real estate crisis.
However, as we were able to establish on the occasion of two buying trips to Thailand and Tucson, for us european gem importers this situation does offer some considerable advantages.
In the land of smiles, and probably in all other major gem trade hubs outside the USA as well, traders lament the shrinking budgets and the declining numbers of american buyers and that being so, they are much more forthcoming in negotiating prices than usual.
In Tucson, on the other hand, we profited from the fact that asian and latin american sellers could not fully compensate for the low dollar by jacking up prices. Had they done so, the Americans would probably have stayed away or bought less to an even greater extent, than they already did.
As always, the shows were very well attended but according to some longtime sellers, business lagged way behind expectations. Many traders bewailed the decline of quality sales and the fact that last yearīs prices per carat could not be maintained. Apparently profit cutbacks of up to 20% were not uncommon.
So much the better were chances for all those with well-stuffed war chests and an interest in fine quality gems. Thus our buyer fcould close some truly spectacular deals. Amongst our recent aquisitions are a 10cts alexandrite from Brazil, a fine lot of top quality tanzanite, two absolutely stunning emeralds, superfine kunzite from a new brazilian source, a large parcel of fine aquamarines in calibrated sizes and many more.
We, for one, do hope the dollar will remain were it is right now for some time to come because we reckon, that the sellersī willingness to lower prices once the dollar starts rising again, will be very limited, indeed.
Nothing to be afraid of, of course, for someone endued with decades of experience in the trade and bargaining skills honed in endless hours (in fact many months if we add it all up) of haggling with indian gemcutters and –brokers…
