CRI听力:Jewellery Trade Hit by Fall in Chinese Demand

As Asia's second largest trade show, the jewellery fair attracted around 18-hundered exhibitors from 30 countries this year.

Organizers say it sees around 30-thousand visitors from 125 countries and its gross export revenues are around 13 billion US dollars.

But despite these statistics, traders say the industry is struggling.

Vice President of the Thai Gem and Jewellery Traders Association, Anthony Peter Brooke, says the collapse of China's market has been particularly damaging to the industry.

"We find ourselves today in a situation where the China market has now unfortunately collapsed, and that's not the wrong word to use, it genuinely has collapsed. It's probably going to take another 4 to 5 years to get back to the state that it was before. What that means is that prices have basically collapsed."

He added the raw material producing countries are no longer able to sell the amounts that they were selling before because of this big price differential.

But while there might be fewer buyers from China, some traders say buyers from countries such as Indonesia have started to purchase more gems.

Though the market condition is not positive, the industry is embracing technology to try to bring manufacturers and buyers together.

Director of Jewellery Virtual Fair, Andrea Marcon says that this time around, the fair features a virtual jewellery platform that allows manufacturers, designers, producers, buyers, wholesalers, and distributors to discover one another.

"It's a mini website, and you can post everything, everything you wish. For example, a ring you want to introduce to everyone that you just made, or something that you can advertise here, and you can post and ask if people watching this platform want to buy."

Jewellery buyer Sunish Shah says he has found what he was looking for at the fair.

"So hopefully everything becomes better by, everything improves here hopefully, and these are the biggest opportunities. The fairs are the biggest opportunities to get things done and it's like a one-stop buying or selling anything."

But he also says he has noticed some traders having a difficult time as a result of the global economy.

This time, foreign exhibitors were allowed to sell gems and jewellery duty-free. Many local exhibitors cut their prices too.

This meant buyers saved about 20 percent, which traders hoped would encourage people to buy more.

Thailand's Ministry of Commerce says the gems and jewellery industry contributed 7.2 billion US dollars to the Thai economy in 2015, and employed about a million people.

For CRI, this is Fei Fei.