Sales of artificial jewellery fall 50%

KARACHI: Floods have caused a sharp fall in demand for artificial jewellery as sales dropped by 50 per cent in the days before Eid, dealers say.

President Artificial Jewellery Manufacturers Association, Saleem Saba, said like the fall in sales of other sectors, floods have affected demand of artificial jewellery as well. Earlier, there was a sharp spike in demand of such jewellery due to a surge in prices of gold.

Rural areas account for 70 per cent demand of artificial jewellery and for that purchases are made from Karachi and Lahore and then the ornaments are sent to these areas.

Besides the floods, Saba said, law and order situation and power outages have also dealt a blow to the artificial jewellery business.

He said mostly light party sets of artificial jewellery are sold on Eid whose prices range from Rs500 to Rs2,000. Besides, jewellery matching the colour of dress was also offered to attract customers.

Dealers also offered 20 per cent discount to entice customers, but despite that a huge quantity of jewellery remained unsold. With the decline in sales on Eid, Saba expected that artificial jewellery sales for weddings will also drop.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2010.