The world’s largest and priceless collection of coloured diamonds will be showcased for the first time beginning yesterday in Dubai, whose retail trade in diamond jewellery alone is worth Dh1.5 billion ($408 million).
The 300-piece Rainbow Collection owned by Antwerp diamond dealer Eddy Elzas is the star attraction in the maiden edition of Dubai International Jewellery Week, an exhibition composed of three distinct shows and runs until Saturday.
Created to be a trade platform among and between traders, investors and consumers, the five-day show is a spin off from the Middle East’s premier exhibition for jewellery and precious timepieces, Watch & Jewellery Dubai. Ongoing at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, the event showcases pieces of jewellery, whose total retail trade in Dubai stands at Dh5.51 billion ($1.5 billion), said Helal Saeed Al Marri, director-general of event organiser Dubai World Trade Centre. “The show has been created to cater to this influential market and deliver distinctive business-to-business and business-to-consumer strategies for a more effective customer focused exhibition platform,” he said. The whole UAE jewellery market is worth Dh22.51 billion ($6.13 billion), the second-biggest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, and makes up 14 per cent of the global jewellery market of Dh536.1 billion ($146 billion). The region is one of the world’s largest markets for luxury jewellery and timepieces estimated to be worth some Dh36.72 billion ($10 billion) by 2010, Al Marri said, adding that regional luxury goods sector would reach Dh367.8 billion ($100 billion) by the same year. The organisers said the three shows within the jewellery week show include Areej Dubai, a boutique event for high-end jewellery and timepieces; Jewellery Collections Dubai, an extensive showcase of exotic pieces from around the world; and Jewellery Trade Dubai, a trade fair for business networking. They said the Rainbow Collection can be viewed at the stand of International Diamond Laboratories (IDL), which is giving away a fancy coloured diamond every day to visitors via a raffle draw. IDL CEO Peter Meeus stressed the importance of consumer confidence in the jewellery industry saying that his office has established a laboratory to ensure the quality of luxury goods in the market. Buyers of diamonds also get certificates, issued by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), as proof of product authenticity.
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