Thailand has a rich gemstone history that began in the 1400s when the country’s mines first produced sapphires and rubies that adorned the crowns, swords and even shoes of the country’s royal family. Just in May, jewelry fans noticed the sparkling sapphire and diamond necklace and earrings worn by Queen Suthida of Thailand at the coronation of King Charles III in London.
But since the 1970s, Thailand has been known as a global center for gem cutting, polishing, heating and trading, doing business with gem-rich neighbors Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, among other countries.
The 68th edition of the Bangkok Gems & Jewelery Fair, which was due to open on Wednesday and end on Sunday after years of disruption from the pandemic, saw organizers see it as an opportunity to reintroduce to the world Thailand’s expertise in processing and perfecting natural gemstones. Or, as the industry calls it, the stones are rough.
Sumed Prasongpongchai, chief executive of the Gems and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (GIT), an agency of the Ministry of Commerce that organizes the show, said the show “provides local businesses with many opportunities to reach overseas buyers”. “We are heavily promoting the show in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.”
He noted, “This fair not only provides a networking platform for gems and jewelry shows, but also showcases new trends in jewelry. There is a great demand for cut gemstones from overseas, mainly from the Americas, Europe and Asia.”
Held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, the show is expected to attract 30,000 visitors, about half of the estimated 60,000 who visited the Tucson Arizona Gem Show earlier this year, often considered the world’s largest The largest gem trade gathering at the Gem Show.
Hotels and cheap labor
Thailand’s gem and jewelry industry has grown not only due to its location in gem-rich Southeast Asia, but also to its relative stability in the volatile region.
“For decades, Thailand has benefited from the political history of neighboring countries,” says Vincent Pardieu, a field gemologist and consultant at VP Consulting in Bahrain, who has lived in Thailand on and off for about 22 years. He explained that many left what is now Myanmar after a military coup in 1962, followed by the Vietnam War, the Cambodian genocide and, most recently, the Sri Lankan civil war.
“But Thailand has strong ties to the Western world and receives a lot of funding from the US, Japan and Europe,” he said. “For decades, most of the gemstone trade moved to Bangkok, where infrastructure such as hotels, banks and technology was built.”
Many believe this combination of resources has enabled the country to maintain its position in the global gem trade.
“You may have small gemstones cut in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Tanzania, but there are no cut gemstone buyers coming to your country,” Mr. Pardieu noted. “Only buyers are interested in rough. Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier don’t go to Madagascar. They go to nice hotels.”
Thailand ranks as the world’s third-largest exporter of colored gemstones, according to GIT, a government agency that officially tracks numbers.
Mr Prasongpongchai said the country’s exports of gems and jewelry (excluding gold) are expected to reach $8.84 billion this year, up about 10 percent from the 2022 total.
“Apart from low labor costs, what Thailand really has is high-quality cutters,” says Justin K Prim. “The Secret Teachings of Gem Cutting.”
“Prices are lower in India, but production cuts have not been as effective,” he explained. “Africans and Afghans always come to Thailand with a rough mentality because it’s easy to get a visa. It’s easy to come to this little community in Bangkok for a week and get everything done.”
This includes the important process of verifying authenticity at a reputable gemological laboratory.
“We have all the major laboratories in Bangkok: GemResearch Swisslab, Lotus and GIA are all highly regarded colored gemstone laboratories,” Mr. Prim said of the GIA facility. “You can go to one of the labs and have a gemologist test the gem for you for a lower price. If we were flying to Sri Lanka, they don’t have any reputable labs, so you’re not sure if you can trust them.”
at a crossroads
Southeast Asia has long been a place where traders and jewelers travel to cut and polish gemstones. “People come to us and our competitors because Thailand as a culture and a country has deep roots in manufacturing, and designers and brands come to us,” said Chanat Sorakraikitikul of the jewelry maker Prada Group. , we help them develop products.” Products. “
“Thailand used to have many mines, especially sapphire,” added Mr Sorakraikitikul, chairman of the group’s finance and risk management committee and son of one of its founders. “About 80 percent of the sapphires you buy come from Thailand, but they’re not raw. But they’re heat-treated here to make them sparkle, and they’re also polished or cut.”
In fact, Chanthaburi, a town about 150 miles southeast of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, is still known today as “The City of Gems,” a nod to its history of ruby and sapphire mining dating back to the 16th century. recognized. Steady mining over the past 50 years or so has depleted most ruby mines and led to the closure of many mines, but some sapphires are still mined there, including green gemstones and the locally prized yellow or whiskey sapphires.
Most of the world’s colored gemstones are now mined in Africa, primarily Mozambique, Kenya, Madagascar and Tanzania. But the mining companies regularly come to Thailand to sell their African finds, according to several jewelry executives and experts.
“There was a time, like 30 years ago, when we would go to Sri Lanka to buy blue sapphires, or Madagascar and Myanmar to buy rubies,” said Phuket Khunaprapakorn, chief executive of Gemburi, a gem cutting and polishing company in the Chanthaburi region. “But now the big mining companies come to Thailand for several auctions every year. Many buyers are in Thailand, and the Thai government supports that.”
He mentioned Gemfields, a British mining and gem marketing company known for Mozambique rubies and Zambian emeralds, and Fura Gems, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which also mines rubies in Mozambique, Queensland sapphires in Australia and emeralds from Colombia. . Both companies have held auctions in Thailand for the past two years.
“Obviously, it’s very convenient for local buyers, but it’s also very convenient for international buyers, who can buy gemstones at auction and have them cut and processed in the same country,” Mr Khunaprapakorn said.
Fura Gems, which holds auctions in Thailand, echoed the same sentiment.
“We hold six auctions in Bangkok every year (two emeralds, two rubies, two Australian sapphires) and since most of our clients and gem laboratories are based in Bangkok, this It makes everything more convenient and convenient,” said Rupak Sen. oversees the company’s sales of rough gemstones worldwide, he wrote in an email. “The country’s great tradition in the business of trading, cutting and polishing rough gemstones has been at the center of all this activity.”
training and skills
Currently, an estimated over one million of Thailand’s population of nearly 72 million are employed in the gem and jewelry industry. This skilled workforce, many of whom are graduates of Bangkok’s various gemological institutes, drives the industry forward.
“For me, Europe is disappearing because there are no new cutters joining and there is almost no government-funded apprenticeship training,” says Mr Prim of Magus Gems, “but Thailand has a lot of cutters, probably hundreds of them.”
However, he adds, “The problem in Thailand right now is that almost every cutter is over 40, and I don’t see any companies training new cutters. They can’t find young people who want to join apprenticeship schemes.”
But for now, Thailand remains at the heart of the colored stone business for Mr Prim.
“It’s two different worlds: you have diamonds and colored stones, while Thailand is dominated by colored stones, and it’s still a major player,” he said. “I would say that the average cutting factory has about 25 employees, but I would bet that in London there must be fewer than 10 colored stone cutters. There must be fewer than 50 diamonds in all of France. Antwerp only produces diamonds, while Germany The main export is diamonds.”
This is a sentiment shared by many gem industry veterans.
“There are not enough cutters to complete rough volumes and the new generation will not enter the industry because they are not willing to work long hours,” said Jayesh Patel, a lecturer at the Asia Institute of Gem Science in Bangkok, who has now lived in Dubai for 20 years. “I don’t blame young people. Even my own family has stories like this. My own son and daughter are well settled abroad, have good jobs and are not interested in the industry.”
But despite the lack of interest from new generations, Thailand currently dominates the field, Patel said, largely because of the expertise of its residents and the way that knowledge has been refined over generations.
“Other countries don’t have the expertise that the people of Thailand have,” Mr Patel added. “They were the ones who started heat treating gemstones. Sri Lanka might be the next challenger, but it’s going through a tough time right now. Jaipur, India, is an important center for colored gemstones, but they’re also processing rough in Thailand. They The heating process hasn’t really been developed yet.”
While no one is quite sure how heated gemstones got started, and some experts say it dates back to ancient times, the GIT website describes how the Thai version was made after World War II when a local in the Chanthaburi region, Sammuang Kaewen, accidentally Broke a gem. When polishing star sapphire. When he tried reconnecting the pieces with borax and heat, he found that the gemstones became more vibrant.
Years later, in 1968, a fire broke out in the center of Chanthaburi province, destroying gem shops and turning many salvaged gemstones into brighter colors. Since then, Mr. Kaewen (who died in 2021 at the age of 95) created the high-temperature gas furnaces used in the process and sparked a renaissance in gemstone processing.
“The Thais really discovered a way to improve gemstones by applying heat,” Mr Pardieu said. “Other countries have not had this technology for many years.”
Despite this expertise, Thai artisans are not expensive to work with, especially compared to the labor of European gem cutters.
“The biggest Thai factory I’ve been to pays cutters 11,000 baht ($313) a month, on top of a lunch buffet and a shuttle service, and a master cutter can earn up to 25,000 baht a month,” Mr Priem said. “But in France, for example, starting salaries are around 1,700 euros ($1,842) a month, and around 2,600 euros for someone with five years of work experience.”
Additionally, Thailand offered tax breaks in 2017 for businesses employing skilled workers in the gem and jewelry industry as a way to boost exports, and has exempted diamonds from any import duties for many years.
“Duty-free imports of diamonds allow the jewelery industry to thrive because it allows designers to have a wider range of creativity,” said Henry Ho, chairman emeritus of the Jewelery Trade Centre, a hub for buyers and sellers in central Bangkok. main hub. “Colored stones and diamonds go hand in hand. They enhance each other.”
And, with the Bangkok Gems and Jewelry Fair kicking off, the focus seems to be on making sure that strong connections remain.
“It’s all about the fine details, and we’re passionate about temples and fine details everywhere,” says Mr Sorakraikitikul of the Prada Group. “A lot of things require meticulous work, and people come to Thailand for the gems and jewellery.”
