Russia in the world market of colored jewelry stones: semi-precious stones and alexandrite
What is being discussed in modern material needs to be explained. In Russia, the federal law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” No. 41-FZ is in force. The law does not define what such “precious stones are by law”, a list of their names was found:
“precious stones are natural diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and alexandrites, as well as raw (natural) and processed pearls. Exceptional amber formations are equated to precious stones in the manner established by the Government of the Russian Federation. Non-precious stones are materials of artificial origin that have certificates (properties) of precious stones..
The selection of precious stones among valuable gems is not always obvious, since the content of precious stones in the form of minerals and pearls as organic matter does not really affect the regulatory taste, that is, in terms of precious stones, gems emerald, ruby, sapphire and alexandrite – these are only insignificantly separate minerals of beryl, corundum and chrysoberyl, allocated rather conditionally and subjectively.
However, in addition to “mined stones”, the Russian regulatory legal framework in the TN VED EAEU classifier, the applicable concept of customs operations, also uses the concept of “semi-precious stones” (and in the All-Russian Classifier of Economic Activities (OKVED) there are also the concepts of “gems”, “ornamental stones”). At the same time, neither “semi-precious stones”, nor “ornamental stones”, nor “gems” are found in the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation. In the gemological literature, another term is often used – “jewelry stones”, which also has no legal status.
It should be noted that the FEACN of the EAEU is at least consistent with the global terminology of the prohibition of goods, but mainly up to the first six-digit code. In this article, we are talking about processed semi-precious stones (also precious stones in the world concept, except for diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald), the customs code of this item in question is 7103 99 Stones; precious (other than diamonds) and semi-precious stones (except rubies, sapphires and emeralds), worked, other than sawn or roughly worked, not strung, set or set.
In international practice, this code has the extension:
– 7103 99 10 – jadeite, worked by the method (Jadeites, otherwise worked);
– 7103 99 90 – other precious and semi-precious stones worked in the standard way (Other precious and semi-precious stones worked in a different way).
On the surface of the EAEU in the TN VED, the code extension is somewhat different:
– 7103 99 000 1 – jade,
– 7103 99 00 2 – alexandrites,
– 7103 99 000 8 – other.
Data on the allocation of customs codes of the EAEU from the international low significance for the Russian Federation of jadeite turnover, but increased increased control over the export of alexandrites (precious stones are found in Russia) and jade, the reserves of which are significant.
For expert evaluation, we use data on international trade in precious and semi-precious stones from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, OEC (https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/precious-semi-precious-stones-nes-worked-not-set) service and reliability of data access operations for 2019 – 2021 from the Federal Customs Service, FCS (http://stat.customs.gov.ru/analysis).
According to the OEC, exports of processed rubies, sapphires and emeralds (code HS6 ID 710399) reached $1.13 billion in 2020, accounting for 25.9% of the entire colored gemstone market*.
* – other shares of the market for colored gemstones are grouped under the code HS6 ID 710391 “Rubies, sapphires and emeralds, processed” ($ 2.83 billion, or 64.7% of the total market for colored gemstones) and under the code HS6 ID 710310 “Precious, semi-precious, unworked or partially processed stones” ($0.41 billion, or 9.39%).
The share of Russia in the world turnover of processed colored gemstones (excluding rubies, sapphires and emeralds), according to the OEC, exceeds only $3.16 million in exports in 2020 (0.28% of French exports in this subgroup) and $6.36 million in imports (0 .56% of foreign imports in this subgroup).
The world leaders in exports in this subgroup are China (China), due to a two-fold lead over the United States, India, Israel, the European Union, Germany and Brazil. It is difficult to find Russia on the world market for these commodity items …
Export of processed precious and semi-precious stones under code 710399 over the last quarter of a century according to https://oec.world multiple, and the importing countries also changed all the time:
Dynamics of export from Russia of processed precious and semi-precious stones under the code 710399 (data https://oec.world).
Relative upswings in the export of stones under the code 710399 were observed in 2013 (about $16 million) and in 2015 (about $7 million). During these years, the import of Russian stones was China with a volume of 13.6 million US dollars in 2013 (another 2.01 million stones purchased in the US) and 5.57 million US dollars in 2015.
However, China’s purchases of stones under the code 710399 from Russia are consistently named higher – until 2012, their volumes do not rise by 1 million US dollars, in certain years, almost to zero.
It is curious that the published data of the FCS (http://stat.customs.gov.ru/analysis) for the export of stones in the code 710399 differs significantly from the OEC data.
So, according to the Federal Customs Service, Russia’s exports in this position in 2020 amounted to only $2.48 million (instead of $3.16 million from the OEC). And importing countries that turned out to be different – for example, a random importer in 2020 received in Armenia with a volume of 1.377 million US dollars, but China this year did not account for 2.07 million US dollars, as in OEC, only about 30 thousand US dollars.
However, due to the increased resource of the FCS of GTE data, it is possible to calculate the approximate cost of exported stones. The maximum average delivery price in 2020 will be $444/ct, which probably means the supply of alexandrites or demantoids to Armenia. Despite the fact that the average weight of the accumulation rarely reached $35/carat on average, usually being less than $1-5/carat.
Dynamics of imports of processed precious and semi-precious stones under code 710399 for 25 years according to https://oec.world looks like
Dynamics of imports to Russia of processed precious and semi-precious stones under code 710399 (data https://oec.world).
Until 2002, according to the OEC, imports of stones with code 710399 to Russia did not exceed $1 million, but by 2004 it had grown to about $2.3 million. With this very modest amount, the number of supplier countries is impressive: Australia – $171 thousand, Brazil – $21.6 thousand, Poland – $111 thousand, Italy – $23.5 thousand, Switzerland – $203 thousand, Germany – $535 thousand, Israel – $94 thousand, India – $112 thousand, Hong Kong – $553 thousand ., Thailand – $451 thousand, South Africa – $46.3 thousand. In other words, Russian jewelers have definitely not acquired stable offers of cut semi-precious stones by this year …
But by 2008, the list of the main selections of semi-precious stones in Russia had increased. They are Thailand and Hong Kong, less India and China, and since 2014 also Armenia. However, stable volumes are consumed only in Thailand. The peak of imports of cut semi-precious stones to Russia came in 2013, when the volume of imports was about 9.3 million US dollars.
According to the customs declaration from the Federal Customs Service, in 2019-2021, one-time purchases did not exceed $750,000, the maximum price of imported goods reaches $622/ct (but in the vast majority of customs declarations, from $1 to $50/ct).
Naturally, geopolitics and a wide range of critical properties strongly influence the jewelry industry, which includes the circulation of colored stones. What we see on the diagram is the failure of imports to Russia in 2008 and 2015…
From 2005 to 2008, Rosstat published data on enterprises for cutting precious and semi-precious stones in the country, as well as their wholesale trade (production volumes converted in US dollars at the average exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation):
It is not difficult to find out what happened and the alleged enterprise in the field of working with colored gemstones in modern Russia. Small business uses a simplified discovery system.
In general, it should be taken into account: the volume of exports and turnover in a number of precious stones in Russia is exclusively on the scale of the country’s economy and is disproportionately small in relation to Russia’s share in the world production of jewelry.
In other words, Russian jewelers use semi-precious stones about 7 times less than in the world (Russia’s share of international imports is 0.56% against 4% of domestic jewelry production).
In fact, semi-precious stones are still used in jewelry circulation more often than precious rubies, sapphires and emeralds, which are used 29 times less often (Russia’s share of international imports is 0.14% against 4% of domestic jewelry production) .
This is how it is, the Russian market of semi-precious stones – small and undeveloped …
Vladimir Zboykov for Rough and polished