Russia Will Help

The Russians are traditionally mentioned as the most promising customers able to help the luxury industry survive in rugged times. Nevertheless, this confidence in the permanence of Russian demand for diamonds on the part of representatives of the Western jewelry industry is never backed up by any full-fledged publications to this effect. The same may be said about the past month. However, this time such a view of Russian consumers has been partially explained.

Thus, this problem was separately treated by Harry Winston Diamond Corp. Chief Executive Officer Robert Gannicott in his interview to Bloomberg.

According to the agency, Gannicott, speaking about demand, said he expected sales to rise in China, India, the Middle East and Russia, partly for cultural reasons that are not well understood in Western countries. As sales in the U.S. have slowed, women in Russia and the Middle East have been increasing purchases of diamonds as security against the possibility of divorce, he said.

“The ladies that become owners of these things don’t have the benefit of divorce laws that we’re used to. The ownership of a very expensive piece of jewellery that is clearly theirs and is clearly portable means a lot more than it would in our society,” Mr. Gannicott said.

Jeweller and Shiels managing director Albert Bensimon says, “Any diamond over 10 carats is in huge demand by the Russians, they have gone mad on size.”