Jewellery boom

«The Italian jewellery sector, after having suffered more than others from the supply and demand shock caused by the pandemic, is recovering rapidly: in 2021, the sector underwent a significant rebound, visible in all the main indicators, that was even higher than the manufacturing average,» explained Sara Giusti, Economist - Intesa Sanpaolo Study and Research Department.

«In the first nine months of 2021, Italian gold jewellery exports recorded an increase of +75% in value and 81.6% in quantity, but the most relevant fact is the full recovery of values compared to pre-Covid times which exceeded the first nine months of exports in 2019 by 6.9% in value and 8.0% in quantity. Production and turnover figures confirm the recovery signs: on average, the first nine months of 2021 saw a 65% growth in industrial production and turnover compared to 2020 and, in this case too, when compared to 2019, the turnover and production aver-ages increased by 13.1% and 8.5% respectively.

The latest figures for October also confirm this trend, with figures up 15% in 2019 for both turnover and production. It is interesting to note how this recovery differentiates the jewellery sector as the only one in the fashion system to have recovered pre-crisis values».

And while the US is driving growth with results that almost double the levels observed in the first nine months of 2020 and exceed those of 2019 in value (+66.3%) and quantity (+44.5%), China is looming on the horizon. «Although the United States are still the main market of reference for the sector, the United Arab Emirates have also recorded significant growth with exports that have more than doubled and an 8.8% growth in value compared to the first nine months of 2019,» Giusti continued. « In prospective terms, the Chinese market, which has rapidly entered the top twenty Italian destinations thanks to the progressive consolidation of Italian exports, is also worth mentioning.

Targeted distribution policies will need to be enacted- ed to seize the potential of Chinese consumption (traditionally, Italian jewellery sales used the Hong Kong market to reach China), exploiting sales channels that are able to compensate for the absence of tourist flows from China with appropriate control decisions for the Chinese market, the second largest after India, in order to reach customers locally.» But to conquer the Far Eastern market, new strategies will have to be implemented, starting with digitalization and sustainability.

Lorenza Scalisi, Editor VO+