Diamond Jewellery Manufacturing – India Vs China

China and India have now become the go-to destinations for manufacturing. For cost-effectiveness and large-scale production capacity, there is none apart from these that have been able to make a name for themselves in global sourcing of products. Same is the case with diamond jewellery manufacturing. Today, diamond jewellery is majorly sourced from India or China. These countries have come to hold the edge in jewellery production and export, when compared to the rest of the nations. However, there are some factors that differentiate these nations too. A retailer needs to take a balanced view of the individual manufacturing strengths of these nations and match it to his requirements to decide upon his sourcing destination. Here are some strengths of China:

1. China has a highly evolved physical infrastructure and logistical set-up, which ensures timely delivery and transport of goods
2. China’s labour force is efficient and is also known to be the cheapest in production of diamond based jewellery
3. With single-window clearance of most business proposals, China has a conducive environment for conducting fast-paced business

Some strengths of India vis-a-vis diamond jewellery manufacturing:

1. India has a large number of traditional, family-run diamond jewellery manufacturing units. These units have manufacturing and export expertise virtually ingrained in their DNA, owing to generations involved in carrying out the business of manufacturing and export of diamond based jewellery. The family businesses have strong experience in making best use of India’s logistical infrastructure to ensure timely delivery of goods
2. Indians are more creative than the Chinese due to stronger IP laws. While Chinese will often copy designs to put the retailers in trouble thereafter, the Indians do a lot of original creative work which is word-class. To add to this, there is the widely acknowledged advantage that India has over China in high-tech jewellery manufacturing R&D
3. There is hardly any cultural barrier between West and India. Democratic traditions, similarity of laws in West and India and widespread westernization has lent depth to India’s’ understanding of Western tastes, market choices and preferences
4. Indian jewellery is almost as cheap as Chinese jewellery, but there’s a greater amount of long-term benefit to be gained from Indian sourcing of jewellery as the well-established family based manufacturing units in India are adept at neutralizing the negatives involved in logistical bottlenecks in India by means of finding the right means to ship items on time. They have been doing this for many decades and their experience can indeed be trusted. The topmost jewellery retailers have been sourcing diamond jewellery manufactured from India.
5. India is the world’s largest diamond polishing/cutting center. Even Chinese manufacturers source their finished diamonds from Surat in India. Hence, the availability of finished diamonds is never going to be a reason of delay for shipment of jewellery pieces.
6. China has covert relations with regimes of blood diamond mining countries like Zimbabwe. That means, the money you use to buy jewellery from Chinese traders would be used to fund civil wars in some of the poorest countries of the world like Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Angola. So, there is a huge ethical issue that arises in buying from Chinese traders.

Using this comparison of diamond jewellery manufacturing processes in India and China, you can make an informed choice for the supplier of your diamond-studded jewellery wares.