MUMBAI (Commodity Online): The second day at the 26th edition of India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) 2009 has a choc-a-bloc schedule with five seminars by eminent speakers. The first seminar, "Lessons from China's success story in Gold jewellery retailing" was by Albert Cheng, managing director, Far East, World Gold Council (WGC).

According to Mr Cheng, in 2008, China consumed around 395.6 tonnes of gold. He said, "Increasing wealth in China will Lead to higher jewellery consumption. We are still far away from India but we have to catch up".

As per the statistics shared by him, out of the total gold consumed, around 248.7 tonnes have been pure gold and 54 tonnes split gold. He also said that around 25.7 tonnes of Platinum and 20.6 tonnes of Palladium were consumed by Chinese market.

According to a survey carried out by WGC, like India, jewellery comes second when it comes to the shopping priorities set by the youngsters. Mr Cheng, said, "Mobile phones are topping the list of shopping priorities and the situation is no different in China. We are trying to change this by projecting gold in a different way. Gold’s brand equity in China starts from lower base from other WGC markets but its improving and the potential is strong".

"China has a more liberalized gold market and a faster growing economy. It has more consolidated manufacturing base and a keener competitive operating retail scene. There has been an increase in demand for 24k Gold jewellery after the current finanacial crisis reinforcing the role of gold as "store of wealth".

There are around 39 gold producers, jewellery manufacturers and retailers in China. 32 bullion suppliers have been appointed and there is a steady trend of investing from non-jewellery sector in the jewellery sector is being witnessed. LaoMiao and Laofengxiang are the two retail giants in the jewellery market. Pure gold manufacturers in Shenzhen produce around 70 percent of gold jewellery in China and Bai Tai, Yuehao, Jinye, Gold Dragon, Cui Liu, AnShenghua are some of the top manufacturers in China.

Mr Cheng said, "There is a keener competitive operating retail scene in China wherein jewellery stores and counters are mushrooming at all the modern shopping malls and departmental stores. There are some local regional brands that are also coming up with retail chains".

Faced by competition from Platinum market, WGC is changing consumer's interest in gold. It is being projected as a fashion item and for this, K-gold strategy has been launched in the market for the younger generation. An 18k gold jewellery campaign, it is targeting the 22-35 years old consumers. "We are trying to switch platinum buyers to gold and rejuvenate the image of gold".

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