Mainland Pearl market is rising rapidly

With the recent shift of the World Pearl Center from Japan to Hong Kong, Hong Kong has become the world's major pearl distribution center and pearl trading center. At the same time, Hong Kong Jewellery Show has become an important window for global businesses to purchase pearls. At the 23rd Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre recently, Zhang Fan, who has led Fengjee Jewelry for many years, expressed emotion at his booth. In June of this year, the Pearl Jewelry Show on the third floor was the most exciting event. ".

Due to the continuous impact of the financial crisis and the relatively small scale of the annual exhibition in June, there are still fewer buyers from Europe and the United States in Hong Kong Jewellery Fair in June this year. Out of the buyer category outside Hong Kong, the largest portion was buyers from Mainland China, followed by Taiwan, followed by the Philippines.

Zhang Fan introduced that over the years, the pearl aquaculture industry has flourished in Asia, and the major consumer markets are in the United States and Europe. However, judging from this exhibition, although the current European and American markets have not yet recovered, the growth of the Asian pearl market, especially the Pearl market in Mainland China, has allowed them to see more Asian faces. "For the world's merchants, Hong Kong, especially the Hong Kong show is a good opportunity to purchase pearls."

Product innovation, Pearl is gorgeous "turning"

According to Zhang Fan, at this exhibition, many merchants from mainland China purchased Nanyang beads. “From the current situation of the entire pearl market, there is a large amount of domestic freshwater pearls, but the price is low, and South Sea Pearl can be sold at a price. However, South Sea Pearl China is not produced but can only be imported. Before the Japanese pearl market was very Strong, now Hong Kong can buy pearls produced around the world, so the Pearl District in the pavilion is very lively.” Zhang Fan explained. He said that at present, the best-selling domestic market is Tahitian black pearls, while Nanyang Jinzhu has shown a rapid increase in recent years. This means that the high-end market for pearls in the Mainland is strengthening overall.

“The positioning of pearls is being reshaped. In the past, consumers may think that pearls are cheap things, domestic pearl inlay products and good designs are rare. Consumers think that pearls are low-priced if they do not see high-end products. Now that it is different, now you gradually see high-end pearl-inlaid jewelry in many jewelry stores, and are attracting some of the most spending power and most willing to spend on women.” Zhang Fan said with a smile, operating pearl-inlaid jewelry for many years. He "hoped for the spring."

According to the data report from UBM Asia organizer June UBM in June, the first two days before the opening of the exhibition, namely on June 24th and 25th, diamond products, Caibao products, and pearl products topped the trading volume. The first two days of the opening of the exhibition were the two days with the highest traffic flow. “This shows that pearls are indeed very large in this exhibition, because from the price point of view, pearl products are lower than diamond products and Caibao products,” said one exhibitor.

The profit space inspires business enthusiasm. “U.S. and Europe have always been the largest consumer markets for pearls, but after the financial crisis, the two markets shrank. Coupled with the Greek events that affected the euro, there were few buyers in Europe and America at the show. We feel that consumption is relatively strong in South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, but they do not add up to the total amount. The rest is only in Asia. The actual situation is indeed that the Asian market is growing rapidly.” Zhang Fan said. “Actually, it is accurate that the Chinese market has risen rapidly because the Japanese jewelry market has not yet recovered.”

According to his market experience, the rise of the high-end pearl market is “closely related to the overall operating status and competition of the jewelry market”. Zhang Fan explained that the high diamond prices and the shrinking profit margins have caused many retailers of diamond products to "take the amount but do not make money," and are therefore reluctant to continue to expand the scale of diamond products. The gold product's strengths and weaknesses are the consensus in the industry.

“Retailers are also reluctant to put their eggs in a basket. Therefore, many domestic retailers are currently actively looking for products with greater profit margins. Pearl and Caibao (mainly Red Sapphire and tourmaline) are their focus. Considering the category of distribution, this is a very clear sign that we have sent to us after contact with local retailers.” Zhang Fan said.

The rise in the price of pearls has also become an important reason for businesses to favor pearl jewelry. Whether it is black pearls, South Sea pearls, or freshwater pearls, the price of large-sized pearls has been rising in recent years, and the increase has been large. In this trend, pearls are increasingly becoming the category of high-end jewelry, and the business enthusiasm of businesses has also been mobilized.

“There is a huge demand for pearls in the Mainland. We used to rely mainly on overseas markets. In the past two years, the share of the domestic market has been rising. We now have enough goods. If the goods are enough, it may be better for business,” said Zhang Fan.